Intel X48 Chipset Before Year-End?

According to DigiTimes, Intel will soon begin shipping X38 chipsets to customers so that mass production can begin. This means that motherboards should arrive around the same time as ATI’s RD790 chipset. Notable features of X38 is of course Penryn support, 1333FSB, DDR3-1333 memory, PCI Express 2.0, dual PCI-E 16x and also support for Intel’s own Extreme Memory Profiles overclocking features.

While we don’t even have X38 yet, it appears that an upgraded version of the chipset might be out before years-end. Tentatively called X48, it will support native 1600FSB and DDR3-1600 memory. This seems like a reasonable rumor, since Intel’s new Extreme Memory Profiles officially support DDR3-1600 speeds as well. According to this article, X38 motherboards will not need to be altered to support the newer chipset, which pretty much assures us that it’s mostly a speed bump.

Board makers will not be required to change any design work of X38-based motherboards since the X38 and X48 chipsets will use the same PCB (printed circuit board), said the sources, noting that the X38 could also support 1600MHz FSB and DDR3 1600 memory after overclocking. Sources at Intel Taiwan, however, stated that the company would decide whether to launch an upgrade version of X38 chipset after evaluating the market reaction to the X38-based motherboards.

Source: DigiTimes