Features
Support for Pentium III and Celeron processors
Support for 133/100/66 mhz bus speeds
Support for AGP 4X
Support for three 133/100 mhz SDRAM DIMMS up to a maximum of 512MB total
Support for Ultra ATA/100 as well as backwards compatibility
Intel Rapid Bios Boot
Intel Express Bios Update
Digital Video Output Header which provides support for digital monitors, digital CRT and TV-Out
Onboard Creative Labs PCI 128 (Optional)
Onboard Intel® PRO/100 V Network Connection (Optional)
Suspend-to-Ram Support
Hardware Management ASIC (Optional)
What the Heck is 815E?
The 815E is a new chipset from Intel, which is designed to provide support for the latest Intel processors as well as support for the latest 3D Graphics. It utilizes several Hub architectures including 82815 Graphics and AGP Memory Controller Hub (GMCH), enhanced 82801BA I/O Controller Hub (ICH2), as well as two USB controllers allowing for 24mbps across 4 ports unlike the normal 12mbps.
The GMCH has an integrated memory controller that provides 64bit support for 4 PC100/133 SDRAM modules. Integrated into the system are also the added features of separate SDRAM buffers, which allow the memory to run independent of the system bus frequency.
The GMCH also utilizes an internal graphics system so that if for some reason you did not want to purchase a video card, you could utilize the internal graphics system. Be aware though that whenever an AGP card is installed into the AGP the internal graphics are automatically disabled. The internal graphics accelerator delivers both 2D and 3D performance. It supports full motion MPEG-2 compensation allowing support for software-assisted DVD playback. The Digital Video Output Header can also be utilized when using the internal graphics to power a progressive scan monitor up to 1600X1200 pixels. When using AGP though, the DVO is disabled.
The ICH2 provides for twice the I/O bandwidth as well as dedicated pathways to speed up data travel. The IDE controllers provide for PIO support up to 14mbytes/sec and BUS Master transfers of up to 100mbytes/sec. without consuming any ISA DMA resources. Each controller is electrically separate so that if one were to go it would not affect the other. The enhanced power management features allow for monitoring of up to 14 devices as well as support for Suspend-to-Ram and Suspend-to-Disk.
Please refer to the graphic on the left for a graphical representation
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