IDF Intel's upcoming 'Conroe'-based Pentium processor, the E1040, will be supported with its own 945-series chipset, reports coming out of Taiwan claim. The part will also be pitched to customer who buy the Core 2 Duo E4000 line.

Like the Pentium E1040, the 945GC chipset is due to ship in Q1 2007. It will support a maximum frontside bus speed of 800MHz and provide a PCI Express x16 slot for add-on graphics. At the 'G' in the model number suggests, the 945GC is an integrated part. It has Intel's previous-generation GMA 950 graphics core on board.

The 945GC will support dual-channel memory configurations, but only one DIMM per channel for a total memory capacity of 2GB. The chipset can take DDR 2 memory clocked at up to 667MHz.

The new chipset's feature set slots it neatly between Intel's existing 945GZ and 945G chipsets - the former has the same memory configuration but no PCI-E x16 slot, while the 945G has the graphic card connector support but ups the maximum RAM to 4GB.

The 1.6GHz single-core E1040 is expected to be followed in Q2 2007 but the 1.4GHz E1020 and the 1.8GHz E1060. All three will contain 1MB of L2 cache. Apart from the Execute Disable Bit and 64-bit addressing, the E1040 will support none of Intel's trademark technologies - so no VT, no HT and no Enhanced SpeedStep. The chip's not certified for Viiv or vPro usage. ®

Read Reg Hardware's complete IDF Fall 06 coverage here