Delivering its Bearlake chipset family to the market in the second quarter of 2007, Intel will begin with the Bearlake-P variant, which targets the mainstream market, and the Bearlake-G chipset that includes an integrated graphics processor (IGP), indicated motherboard makers familiar with Intel's chipset roadmap. Next two products in this family, the Bearlake-X and Bearlake-G+, both to be launched in the third quarter, will support DDR3 memory technology and PCI Express (PCIe) 2.0 interface, the makers emphasized.
Targeting digital home applications, the Bearlake-G+ will also support HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface) and HDCP (High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection) technologies, according to the makers.
As reported on June 26, industry sources expected that Intel will likely leave the high-end chipset market, to involve Nvidia and ATI, with their dual-graphics technologies, in more active developments of high-end chipsets for the Intel platform. As a result, the two companies could become less focused on the AMD platform, the sources noted. According to the report, with the Bearlake family, Intel only aimed to replacing its 965-series chipsets and supporting the upgraded 1333MHz front-side bus (FSB). However, the latest roadmap from Intel indicates that the Bearlake-X will be delivered as an upgrade to the current Intel 975X Express chipset. The forthcoming chipset will not only feature the 1333MHz FSB, but also support DDR3-1333 memory, according to the sources.
The Bearlake-G+ will be Intel's first chipset to support Microsoft DirectX 10 technology, said the sources. In addition to this, the IGP chipset will be able to work with DDR2-800 or maybe even DDR3-1066 memory, and its digital-home properties will include H.264 and VC-1 video codecs, which are both adopted by Blu-ray and HD DVD formats, the sources pointed out.
Article translated by Jessie Shen and edited by Vyacheslav Sobolev
