Larry, I've been working with the 810 for the last 9 months. I've
also been working with the 820(Camino) and 840(Carmel). Do you
know the differences between these chipsets?
The 810 itself has no modem, sound or USB, that's handled by the south bridge (the ICH, yet another chip in the 'chipset').
Faster USB? No. USB is USB and no faster. The AC97 spec has
been around since... yep 1997. Unfortunately, software sound
and modem will always be a poor performer compared to dedicated
hardware as it is burdensome overhead for the CPU and Northbridge.
The main benefit of the 810 is it's integrated video controller.
However, the 810 offers system designers the option of using
a dedicated frame buffer (seperate video memory) or using
main memory. If main memory is used, performance suffers a
good deal. There's a differentiator of machine capability
right there... just because machine A and B both use an 810
doesn't mean they'll perform similarly.
If you eliminate the video frame buffer, and fully utilize AC97, it will take a 500Mhz CPU with 100Mhz SDRAM to perform as fast
as a 233Mhz CPU with 66Mhz SDRAM using dedicated peripheral
hardware.
The 810 is just another small step in the evolution of the PC...
nothing revolutionary here. The industry has been able to
put an entire PC on a chip for a decade or more. Problem being,
technology is moving so fast that by the time you get it to market
it's severely underpowered and obsolete.
Larry, if you think you are paying attention to the future of
computing by basing your knowledge on magazine articles devoid of depth, and, by only focusing on how cheaply a basic PC can be
produced, you're only fooling yourself. You are
completely missing the real changes in technology that are
radically changing the computing landscape. You are also missing
how Dell's strategy is constantly developing to to take advantage
of this fact.
I only invest in what I understand. Do you?
MEATHEAD
MEATHEAD
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