Desktop PC platforms based on the Intel® X48 Express Chipset, combined with either the Intel® Core™2 Duo, Intel® Core™2 Quad or Intel® Core™2 Extreme processors establish a new standard for performance. Designed to push the limits, the Intel X48 Express Chipset supports the new Intel® QX9770 Core™2 Extreme processor with 1600 FSB, dual-channel XMP 1600 MHz DDR3 memory, next generation dual X16 PCI Express 2.0 and Intel® Extreme Tuning to extract the maximum platform performance.

With the growing imbalance between CPU and memory performance, it is critical to optimize the memory controller design to obtain the maximum possible performance from the memory subsystem. The redesigned Intel X48 Express Chipset Memory Controller Hub (MCH) architecture significantly increases overall system performance through the optimization of available bandwidth with the new 1600 MHz system bus and reduction of memory access latency with Intel® Fast Memory Access. These technology breakthroughs result in optimized system architecture with built-in intelligence, greatly improving system memory performance. The updated MCH also includes support for Intel 45nm next-generation Intel Core 2 processor family and wider internal data buses that support dual-channel DDR3 memory technology at 1600 MHz.

Features