Intel Corporation today introduced the Intel® 845 chipset for Intel® Pentium® 4 processor-based PCs targeted at the high-volume, mainstream consumer and corporate desktop PC market segment. The Intel 845 chipset is designed, validated and optimized for the Pentium 4 processor using today's high-volume and well-established PC133 SDRAM memory technology. Intel 845 chipset-based platforms, utilizing the PC133 SDRAM memory technology, extend the Pentium 4 processor capabilities throughout the mainstream PC market segments. The Intel 845 chipset consists of two controller hubs connected to each other through Intel's high-bandwidth hub architecture. The 82845 memory controller hub (MCH) supports a 400 MHz system bus delivering a high-bandwidth connection between the Pentium 4 processor and the rest of the platform, providing three times the system bus bandwidth over platforms based on Intel Pentium III processors. Also included in the MCH is such innovative architecture enhancements as wider data paths, a write cache and flexible memory refresh technology to enable optimum PC133 SDRAM performance, and the latest graphics devices through the 1.5V AGP4x interface enabling 1 GB/s of graphics bandwidth.

The 82801BA I/O controller hub (ICH2) delivers faster access among memory, graphics and the I/O peripherals by making a high-bandwidth connection through the Intel hub architecture. The ICH2 provides two USB controllers enabling support for up to four USB ports. The latest AC97 implementation delivers six channels of audio for enhanced sound quality and full surround sound capability, and integrated networking provides flexible network solutions Also, dual ultra ATA/100 controllers support faster integrated drive electronics (IDE) transfers to storage devices. Additionally, with the introduction of the 845 chipset, Intel announced the Intel application accelerator software package designed to increase storage subsystem performance, stability and usability. The software improves system performance by delivering faster hard disk I/O transfer rates and enabling faster O/S load time, resulting in accelerated boot times. In addition, the Intel application accelerator delivers support for hard disk drives greater than 137 GB while providing this all in a robust, stable software package.

In 1,000-unit quantities, the Intel 845 Chipset is priced at $42; systems and motherboards are currently shipping in volume from a variety of computer and motherboard manufacturers worldwide.