Intel likely to support DDR2-667 memory

MOBO FIRM Gigabyte said that the 925XE, which will support a 1066MHz front side bus, is functionally identical to the 925X and will sell at the same price.

A report sent to the INQ said even the price is unchanged - the chipset will cost $50 in quantities of 1,000.

Gigabyte said that the bandwidth of the 1066 bus is 8.5GB/s compared to the 6.4GB/s of the 800MHz bus.

But Gigabyte said Intel is ignoring one element in its roadmaps. That is there is no mention of DDR2-667 memory, even though memory standards group JEDEC standardised on all three DDR-2 speed grades in January this year.

Gigabyte added: "As more and more 667 DIMMs are becoming available, we suppose that Intel will end up supporting the faster memory". It says that the chipset did not cause any problems running at speeds of up to DDR2-740. Motherboard manufacturers won't need to redesign their boards.

Intel will launch the 915GV along with the 925XE, said Gigabyte. This is essentially a 915G without X16 PCI Express. It will also introduce a 910GL with support for DDR2 memory removed.

The firm sent along this pretty picture. µ