i820 Motherboard Roundup - January 2000

While this roundup was originally intended to be a roundup of single processor i820 motherboards, we received one dual processor entry that forced us to change the scope of the article slightly.  We will eventually perform a roundup of dual processor i820 motherboards as more manufacturers begin shipping their motherboards. 

In the discussion about the i820’s MCH, we mentioned that there are two versions of the MCH, the 82820 and the 82820DP, the latter offering support for dual processors.  However,  since the two chips are pin-compatible, it doesn’t take much work for a manufacturer to implement one or the other in their designs. 

The 82820DP differs from the regular MCH in that it features the logic required for dual processor operation integrated into the chip itself. 

If you recall, with the BX and GX chipsets, this logic was present in the form of an external ASIC that slightly increased the cost of motherboards that featured it.  By integrating the logic into the chipset, not only do you save valuable PCB space but you also decrease the cost. 

Don’t think that this step is a unique one, because according to VIA, their Apollo Pro line of chipsets has had the logic integrated into the North Bridge for quite some time. It’s just that until recently, no manufacturer had ever thought of producing a dual processor VIA motherboard.  However, at last year’s Comdex, Tyan gave us a nice demonstration of their upcoming dual processor solution running on a VIA chipset, with no external ASIC.

This brings up an interesting question - if, by using the 82820DP MCH, you don’t have to add any external ASICs in order to enable multiprocessor operation, shouldn’t you theoretically be able to install a dual Socket-370 card in a single slot-1 motherboard that uses the 82820DP MCH and be able to have a cost effective dual processor system? 

While we have yet to be able to answer this question, at last year’s Fall Comdex we did manage to see a solution from Gigabyte that could be just the solution we’re looking for. 

QDI announced a similar solution a little while back, but their implementation required a specific model of motherboard that happened to have the ASIC on-board, despite being a single Slot-1 board.