Rich and some people might be interested in reading this from Dell's new
blog which has some very good info overall:
The 590 SLI Chipset from NVIDIA's Perspective
http://www.direct2dell.com/one2one/archive/2006/12/04/3961.aspx
Published Monday, December 04, 2006 10:45 AM
by Bryan Del Rizzo, NVIDIA MCP Business Group
Filed Under: Products, Technology, Consumer/ Small Business, Customer
Experience, Gaming
The 590 SLI Chipset from NVIDIA's Perspective Given the ongoing concern
about Dell's implementation of the 590 SLI chipset on the XPS 700, I wanted
to take a few minutes to clarify some things from NVIDIA's perspective.
For AMD platforms, the nForce 590 SLI SPP (what was commonly known as the
"northbridge"), supports a single x16 PCIe connection as well as 2 x1
connections. All products that are branded nForce 590 SLI, include both an
nForce SPP and nForce MCP (this two chip solution is commonly referred to as
a "chipset"). Because this is a dual X16 PCIe platform, it has to be paired
with a media and communications processor (MCP), or what is commonly
referred to as a "southbridge." The MCP chip used in this solution is called
the nForce 590 SLI MCP. The nForce 590 SLI MCP incorporates the second x16
PCIe as well as 4 x1 connections.
Because AMD incorporates a memory controller into its CPUs, we can also
utilize the nForce 590 SLI MCP as an alternative single chip solution that
provides a dual x8 functionality for more mainstream PCs. For these
specifics uses, the nForce 590 SLI MCP is used but is branded to consumers
under the nForce 570 SLI name. This is necessary so that consumers can
distinguish between the nForce 590 SLI solution which is dual x16, and the
nForce 570 SLI solution which is dual x8.
For Intel, we have a nForce 590 SLI Intel Edition SPP that also incorporates
a memory controller for Intel CPUs. This SPP is paired with the nForce 590
SLI MCP, which is the same thing as the nForce 570 SLI MCP. Some programs,
including CPU-Z, report the "southbridge" as nForce 570 SLI MCP. This is
fine. However, you need to distinguish between what NVIDIA brands as the
nForce 590 SLI solution vs. the individual chips which are used on the
motherboard.
For the XPS 700 and 710, Dell uses the nForce 590 SLI SPP (for Intel)
"northbridge" and the correct southbridge, which in this case, is the nForce
590 SLI MCP, also known as the nForce 570 SLI MCP. Dell's implementation is
the one represented in the first two pages of this PDF on our site that some
of you referenced in the comment thread to Lionel's earlier post on this
topic.
CH