Intel is planning to add one more member to its 4 series (Eaglelake) chipsets which will be launched in the second quarter of 2008, according to sources at motherboard makers. In addition to its original premium G45 IGP and mainstream P45 chipsets, Intel will add the G43 chipset to replace the previous G35, P35, G33 and G31 chipsets in the value segment.
The G43 will adopt a 65nm process and have a built-in Intel GMA 4500 graphics engine, supporting DirectX 10, Shader Model 4.0 and OpenGL 2.0. The chipset will also have built-in HDMI, DisplayPort, and DVI support along with HDCP. The difference between the G43 and G45 are that the former has reduced high-definition video decoding and memory support, the sources noted.
Only the G45 will support MPEG2, VC1 and H.264 decode acceleration meaning systems with the lower-end G43 chipset will see higher CPU utilization when playing back high-definition formats such as HD DVD and Blu-ray. Both the G45 and G43 will support dual-channel memory, but the G43 will only support one DIMM per channel, while the G43's maximum memory capacity will drop from 8GB, of the G45, to 4GB.
In the third quarter of 2008, 4 series chipsets will account for 20% of Intel's total chipset shipments, while 3 series will total 60%, 945 18% and 965/946 family 2%, added the sources.
Source: Digitimes