Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/1999/11/16/caminogate_iii_the_fun_never/

Caminogate III: the fun never starts

Anything Intel can do, others can do better

By Mike Magee

Posted in On-Prem, 16th November 1999 09:34 GMT

A close investigation of the technology used in Intel's Cape Cod SDRAM mobo, which it launched yesterday, has revealed some puzzling internal inconsistencies. This particular rev of Intel's i820 technology, appears to use the same drivers and the same BIOS update as the CA 810 motherboard. That suggests Intel is using the same 82801AA LPC, PCI bridge and SMbus (system management), and could even be using the 82802 firmware hub the CA 810 uses. It also implies that when supporting SDRAM in the Cape Cod mobo, Intel probably had to use 810 technology. Got that? In layzilla terms, that suggests what we always suspected, which is that the right hand of Intel doesn't know what the left hand is doing, a problem apparently common to all large corporations. And while Intel can't manage to get three Rambus RIMMs on one of its own mobos, Rioworks can. The company has released a mobo called the PU 82A which not only supports three RIMMs, but also supports a front side bus overclock of 150MHz. What does Rioworks know that Intel doesn't? Plenty, it appears. The Rioworks info is here. ®