CES: nForce 415-D Leaves the Graphics to You

I've always been surprised at the hoopla about NVIDIA's nForce. While it's understandable that OEMs would want an all-in-one solution for graphics, networking, and audio, you'd think that those who build their machines from scratch would want to pick all of their components individually. If you want to pick your graphics card, but prefer not to fuss with the other components included in nForce, you might want to look for future motherboards that use NVIDIA's new 415-D processor set, which lets you do just that. The nForce 415-D combines nForce's Media and Communications Processor (MCP) with a new System Platform Processor (SPP) to deliver memory, networking, and audio. The nForce SPP features TwinBank, an optimized 128-bit memory controller architecture that provides up to 4.2GB/sec. of system memory bandwidth; a dynamic adaptive speculative pre-processor (DASP) that is said to boost CPU performance; a single-step memory arbiter; and a 4X accelerated graphics port for an external graphics card. The nForce MCP also has an Audio Processing Unit (APU) with a Dolby Digital 5.1 real-time encoder; StreamThru data streaming for networking; and support for HomePNA 2.0, 10/100 Ethernet, and USB. Both the nForce SPP and nForce MCP also make use of HyperTransport. The nForce 415-D processor set is in production now. Boards based on it will be available later this month from motherboard makers that include MSI and ASUS.