Motherboard – Intel 6321ESB Southbridge
by
Bert Toepelt
Since the Skulltrail system is based on a workstation chipset, it also uses the corresponding workstation southbridge. Intel’s 6321ESB connects to the 5400 northbridge either via four PCI-Express lanes or four ESI lanes. The following table compares the normal ICH9 southbridge to the 6321ESB.
| Southbridge | 6321ESB | ICH9 |
| Manufacturing Process | 90 nm | 90 nm |
| SATA-300 | 6 | 6 |
| USB 2.0 | 10 | 12 |
| IDE ATA-66/100 | 2 | 0 |
A floppy controller is provided through a third-party I/O-chip connected to the southbridge through the PCI bus. Intel’s D5400XS board does not provide a connector for a floppy drive, however. We did not have any trouble updating the board’s BIOS with a bootable USB thumb drive.
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- Hardware,
- Skulltrail ,
- QX9775 ,
- D5400XS ,
- Octo-Core
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