Introduction EP-3C1A
Page 1-2
System Overview
The EP-3C1A is designed with Intel
®
820 chipset. The Intel
®
820 chipset includes
MCH (FW82820), ICH (FW82801) and FWH (N82802AB) three chips. The
Intel
®
820 chipset is the third generation desktop chipset designed for Intels FC-
PGA package architecture processor and the first chipset to support the 4X
capability of the AGP 2.0 Interface Specification. The MTH (82805AA) provides
the capability to support 100MHz SDRAMs on DIMMs socket. A new chipset
component interconnect, the hub interface, is designed into the Intel
®
820 chipset
to provide more efficient communication between chipset components.
Support of AGP 4X, 100MHz SDRAM and the hub interface provides a balanced
system architecture for the Pentium
®
III or later socket 370 architecture proces-
sor minimizing bottlenecks and increasing system performance. By increasing
memory bandwidth to 1.6GB/s through the use of AGP 4X, the Intel
®
820 chipset
will deliver the data throughput necessary to take advantage of the high perfor-
mance provided by the powerful Pentium
®
III or later socket 370 architecture
processor.
The Intel
®
820 chipset architecture removes the requirement for the ISA expan-
sion bus that was traditionally integrated into the I/O subsystem of Intel chipsets.
This removes many of the conflicts experienced when installing hardware and
drivers into legacy ISA systems. The elimination of ISA will provide true plug-and
play for the Intel
®
820 platform.
Intel
®
820 chipset contains four core components: the Memory Controller Hub
(MCH), Memory Translator Hub (MTH), the I/O Controller Hub (ICH) and the
Firmware Hub (FWH). The MCH integrates the 133MHz, Pentium
®
II/III proces-
sor bus controller, AGP 2.0 controller, 100MHz SDRAM controller and a high-
speed hub interface for communication with the ICH. The ICH integrates an
UltraATA/66 controller, USB host controller, LPC interface controller, FWH
interface controller, PCI interface controller, and a hub interface for communica-
tion with the MCH. The Intel
®
820 chipset will provide the data buffering and
interface arbitration required to ensure that system interfaces operate efficiently
and provide the system bandwidth necessary to obtain peak performance the
Pentium
®
III or later socket 370 architecture.