PC Makers Roll Out Desktops with Grantsdale, Alderwood Chip Sets

IBM on Tuesday became the latest PC maker to announce desktops based on Intel Corp.s new 915G, 915P and 925X Express chip sets.

Dell Inc. and Gateway Inc. made similar announcements on Monday.

Intels new chip sets, code-named Grantsdale and Alderwood, offer new technologies—in particular PCI Express and support for faster DDR2 memory. PCI Express is a high-bandwidth serial interconnect technology that Intel says will replace the parallel PCI bus and speed up the transfer of data within the systems.

/zimages/5/28571.gifClick hereto read more about the new chip sets.

The 925X is for high-end gaming and graphics-intensive systems; the other two chip sets are for midrange systems. Intel, of Santa Clara, Calif., also rolled out several new Pentium 4 chips built on its 90-nanometer manufacturing process and featuring its Hyper-Threading technology, designed to enhance application performance.

IBM, of Armonk, N.Y., unveiled the ThinkCentre A51p, targeted at small and midsize businesses. The system not only uses the 915G chip set, but also comes with IBMs ThinkVantage technologies and greater toolless maintenance, said Dilip Bhatia, program director of the ThinkCentre products for IBM.

The goal is to add performance and security to the desktop while making it easier to manage, he said. The A51p includes IBMs Embedded Security Subsystem, which eases password management, and Rescue and Recovery, which is a single-button backup system that enables users to restore data that had been saved.

The new chip set and Pentium 4 processor will improve performance and graphics capabilities, Bhatia said.

The A51p is available now, starting at $829.

Dell, of Round Rock, Texas, on Monday rolled out the OptiPlex SX and GX 280 systems, which use the new Pentium 4 chips and 915G chip set.

The systems also come with Serial ATA hard drives, Intels Graphics Media Accelerator 900 and a new program, the Stability Assurance Program, in which Dell will pay for any image upgrade to the computer for the first 15 months.

Dell also rolled out three Dimension PCs with the new chip sets, targeting small and midsize businesses and consumers. The 8400 and XPS desktops both use the 925X Express chip set. The 8400 starts at $1,369; the XPS starts at $2,599.

The Dimension 4700, available next month, uses the 915G Express and graphics accelerator.

Officials with Gateway, of Poway, Calif., announced Monday that they will roll out Gateway and eMachines systems based on the chip sets later this summer.

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