Unlike previous chipsets, the 440FX didn't have the problem of a cacheable memory area being limited, since the Pentium Pro's internal L2 cache and the Pentium II's on-card L2 cache takes care of all RAM caching, instead of the chipset. With that bottleneck taken care of, the 440FX already appears to be an excellent reason to upgrade from a Socket-7 CPU to. However it does lack features such as support for SDRAM and APM (Advanced Power Management) but it compensates by adding support for BEDO DRAM and lower CPU utilization for simple operations.
To fit its server role, the Natoma Chipset allows a maximum of 2 processors to be used using the Symmetric Multiprocessing standalone I/O APIC component, a 64-pin lead QFP chip. The 440FX chipset also continues to make excellent use of Intel's Concurrent PCI Architecture which allows for lower CPU utilization when performing operations which take advantage of the integrated multi-transaction timer such as video playback. Like the 430VX and HX chipsets, the Natoma uses the PIIX3 Busmastering EIDE controller to ensure backwards compatibility with all previously released products.
| Intel 82440FX Chipset | ||
| Common Name | Natoma | |
| Chipset Packaging | Number of chips | 3 (82441FX PMC, 82442FX
DBX, 82371SB) 1 (optional - 82093AA for SMP) |
| Packaging Type | 3 x 208-pin QFP 1 x 64-pin lead QFP (optional) |
|
| CPU Support | Number of CPUs | 2 (SMP) |
| AMD CPUs Supported | N/A | |
| Cyrix CPUs Supported | N/A | |
| Intel CPUs Supported | Pentium Pro, Pentium II | |
| Cache | Type | N/A on chip |
| Maximum Supported Size | N/A on chip | |
| Maximum Cacheable DRAM Area | N/A on chip | |
| Memory | Maximum DRAM Supported | 1024MB |
| BEDO DRAM Read Timings (66MHz) | 5-1-1-1 | |
| EDO DRAM Read Timings (66MHz) | 5-2-2-2 | |
| FPM DRAM Read Timings (66MHz) | 5-3-3-3 | |
| SDRAM Read Timings (66MHz) | N/A | |
| Data Path to Memory | 64-bits | |
| ECC Support | Yes | |
| Hard Disk Controller | Chip | PIIX3 (82371SB Controller) |
| Busmastering Support | Yes | |
| UltraDMA Support | No | |
| Max. Theoretical Transfer Rate | PIO Mode 4/DMA Mode 2 (16.6MB/S) | |
| PCI Interface | Supported PCI Bus Speeds | 30, 33 MHz |
| Async. PCI Bus Speed | No | |
| PCI Specification | 2.1 (66 MHz max.) | |
| Power Management | PC97 Compliance | Yes |
| Suspend to Disk | Yes | |
| HDD Power Down | Yes | |
| Modem Wakeup | Yes | |
| System Suspend | Yes | |
| Video | AGP Support | No |
| Unified Memory Architecture | No | |
| Peripheral Support | USB Support | Yes |
| Plug and Play Port | Yes | |
| Write Buffers | CPU-to-DRAM | 16 QWords |
| CPU-to-PCI | 6 DWords | |
| PCI-to-DRAM | 20 DWords | |
| Officially Supported Bus Speeds | 60, 66 MHz | |
| Unofficially Achieved Bus Speeds | 68, 75, 83.3 MHz | |
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
4 Comments
View All Comments
vortmax2 - Wednesday, June 25, 2014 - link
The good ole' days when you could put multiple vendor CPUs into the same motherboard. So simple...PentiumGeek - Thursday, September 1, 2016 - link
This motherboard was on my 1st PC. I was very disappointed when faced with the problem that DIMM and SIMM memory can't work in the same time. I used Pentium 100Mhz CPU on this motherboard :)Amadeus777999 - Wednesday, May 9, 2018 - link
Got an ASUS P2L97 board yesterday and I'm reading through this while DoomII is benchmarking. Good times.rogerjowett - Sunday, May 17, 2020 - link
Does n e 1 know where I can find a Voltage Regulation Module please