The nForce2 Chipset was released by NVIDIA in July of 2002 as a refresh to the original nForce product offering. The nForce2 chipset was a platform for motherboards supporting AMD's Socket A CPUs along with DDR SDRAM. There were variations of the chipset including one with and one without an integrated GeForce4 MX graphics processor (IGP). NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ: NVDA) (pronounced ) is an American corporation specializing in the manufacture of GPU technologies for video cards, graphics cards, workstations, desktop computers, handhelds and more. ... Image File history File links nVidia nForce2 logo File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Athlon is the brand name applied to a series of different x86 processors designed and manufactured by AMD. The original Athlon, or Athlon Classic, was the first seventh-generation x86 processor and, in a first, retained the initial performance lead it had over Intels competing processors for a significant... Socket A (also known as Socket 462) is the CPU socket used for AMD flagship processors ranging from the Athlon K7 to the Athlon XP 3200+, and AMD budget processors including the Duron and Sempron. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... nVidia nForce3 logo The correct title of this article is nForce3. ... NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ: NVDA) (pronounced ) is an American corporation specializing in the manufacture of GPU technologies for video cards, graphics cards, workstations, desktop computers, handhelds and more. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Sony Playstation motherboard A motherboard, also known as main board, logic board or system board, is the central or primary circuit board making up a complex electronic system, such as a computer. ... Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. ... Socket A (also known as Socket 462) is the CPU socket used for AMD flagship processors ranging from the Athlon K7 to the Athlon XP 3200+, and AMD budget processors including the Duron and Sempron. ... DDR SDRAM or double-data-rate synchronous dynamic random access memory is a type of memory integrated circuit used in computers. ... A GeForce4 (codenames below) is a fourth-generation graphics processing unit (GPU) manufactured by NVIDIA which forms the basis of many computer graphics cards. ...

Development

The nForce2 features two different southbridges, the MCP-P and the MCP-T. The two differ only in audio and ethernet integration. The latter is equipped with two 100 Mbit ethernet NICs (nV and 3Com 3C905) and the impressive NVAPU (SoundStorm) with hardware accelerated 3D audio and real-time 5.1-channel Dolby Digital encoding whereas the first features one 100 Mbit NIC and an AC97 audio controller. For audio, both MCP's were connected to an external codec chip, such as a Realtek ALC650. With the MCP-P, this codec provided all software-driven audio duties, while with the MCP-T it performed the DAC duties. Unfortunately, this low quality codec and unavoidably noisy motherboard circuitry (EMI/RFI) were detrimental to audio quality on even the MCP-T equipped boards, and as a result the nForce audio solutions were never of high fidelity unless the S/PDIF output (TOSLINK or coaxial) was used. This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Ethernet is a large, diverse family of frame-based computer networking technologies that operates at many speeds for local area networks (LANs). ... The megabit is a unit of information storage, abbreviated Mbit or sometimes Mb. ... A network card, network adapter or NIC (network interface controller) is a piece of computer hardware designed to allow computers to communicate over a computer network. ... 3Com (NASDAQ: COMS) is a manufacturer best known for its computer network infrastructure products. ... SoundStorm was an advanced integrated 5. ... Multichannel audio is the name for a variety of techniques for expanding and enriching the sound of audio playback by recording additional sound channels that can be reproduced on additional speakers. ... Dolby Digital is the marketing name for a series of lossy audio compression technologies by Dolby Laboratories. ... AC97 (short for Audio Codec 97) is Intel Corporations Audio Codec standard developed by the Intel Architecture Labs in 1997, and used mainly in motherboards (also known as on-board or integrated), modems, and sound cards. ... A codec is a device or program capable of performing encoding and decoding on a digital data stream or signal. ... Realtek Semiconductor Corp. ... In electronics, a digital-to-analog converter (DAC or D-to-A) is a device for converting a digital (usually binary) code to an analog signal (current, voltage or electric charge). ... Radio Frequency Interference (RFI) is electromagnetic radiation which is emitted by electrical circuits carrying rapidly changing signals, as a by-product of their normal operation, and which causes unwanted signals (interference or noise) to be induced in other circuits. ... High Fidelity is also the title of a book by Nick Hornby and a film directed by Stephen Frears, based upon Hornbys book. ... S/PDIF or S/P-DIF stands for Sony/Philips Digital Interface Format, also IEC 958 type II, part of IEC-60958. ...

The nForce2 chipset was remarkable for its advanced memory controller. It introduced a dual-channel memory interface to the mainstream market, doubling theoretical bandwidth. This was deemed necessary for the nForce2 IGP, with its GeForce4 MX-class integrated graphics, to be performance competitive budget solution. It was also important not to divert bandwidth, by sharing memory bandwidth with the most powerful IGP produced for Socket A, from the rest of the system. Athlon XP's DEC Alpha EV-6 system bus was incapable of benefitting from the second channel by design, so the second channel was almost exclusively available for the GPU. In dual-channel configurations of the nForce2 without IGP, the Athlon XP only showed gains of 5% at most in memory bandwidth intensive applications. Dual-channel architecture DDR/DDR2 SDRAM describes a motherboard technology that effectively doubles data throughput from RAM to the memory controller. ... Athlon is the brand name applied to a series of different x86 processors designed and manufactured by AMD. The original Athlon, or Athlon Classic was the first seventh-generation x86 processor and, in a first, retained the initial performance lead it had over Intels competing processors for a significant... DEC Alpha AXP 21064 Microprocessor die photo Package for DEC Alpha AXP 21064 Microprocessor Alpha AXP 21064 bare die mounted on a business card with some statistics The DEC Alpha, also known as the Alpha AXP, is a 64-bit RISC microprocessor originally developed and fabricated by Digital Equipment Corp... Front Side Bus (FSB) is the term used to describe the CPU data bus. ... It has been suggested that this article be split into multiple articles. ...

Among various fixes and refinements compared to the original nForce, nForce2 featured a fixed PCI/AGP clock, i.e. PCI and AGP frequencies will not change when changing the FSB. As a result, the nForce2 platform was known for its ease in overclocking AMD processors, and was a favorite for years with the overclocking community. It was also known that the chipset produced best results with FSB and memory running synchronized. 64-bit PCI expansion slots inside a Power Macintosh G4 The Peripheral Component Interconnect, or PCI Standard (in practice almost always shortened to PCI) specifies a computer bus for attaching peripheral devices to a computer motherboard. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... In computers, the front side bus (FSB) or system bus is the physical bi-directional data bus that carries all electronic signal information between the central processing unit (CPU) and other devices within the system such as random access memory (RAM), video cards, PCI expansion cards, hard disks, the memory... AMD Athlon XP Overclocking BIOS Setup on ABIT NF7-S. FSB frequency (External clock) has increased from 133 MHz to 148 MHz, and clock multiplier factor has changed from 13. ...

Refresh

In 2003, NVIDIA released a refreshed nForce2, called "nForce2 Ultra 400". The nForce2 Ultra 400 and nForce2 400 represented official support for a 200 MHz FSB and PC-3200 DDR SDRAM, whereas the older nForce2 had only supported a maximum of 166 MHz FSB. Ultra 400 offered dual-channel support, while the plain 400 was single-channel PC-3200-capable. Both performed very similarly because neither had the IGP and again Athlon XP did not benefit significantly from the added bandwidth because the Athlon XP's bus was only capable of bandwidth matching a single channel of PC-3200. The new chipset again was partnered with several different southbridges, including one with (MCP-T) and one without (MCP) the NVAPU and dual ethernet NICs. A later southbridge, MCP-Gb, integrated Serial ATA and RAID as well. The NVAPU was never integrated into a -Gb southbridge. First generation (1. ... In computing, specifically computer storage, a Redundant Array of Independent Drives (or Disks), also known as Redundant Array of Inexpensive Drives (or Disks), (RAID) is an umbrella term for data storage schemes that divide and/or replicate data among multiple hard drives. ...

Soundstorm

Main article: SoundStorm

The soundstorm audio system was one of the first consumer computer audio products to offer real time Dolby Digital 5.1 encoding. This meant that one could play games or music and output them as a 5.1 stream digitally to an external decoding speaker system. This solves a common problem with most digital sound solutions of having to hook up both digital and analog connections at the same time so you can have surround sound in both games (using the analog connections) and movies (using the digital connection). 5 years after the soundstorm release, even the Creative SoundBlaster X-Fi series doesn't offer real time Dolby Digital 5.1 encoding. SoundStorm was an advanced integrated 5. ...

Some see the passing of SoundStorm as a classic example of the bottom dollar approach to building computers sweeping the PC industry, with component quality being gradually eroded, in favor of pricing considerations. Soundstorm was good competition for Creative Labs during its time, but did suffer from driver issues and performance problems. Many computer owners also had their own discrete audio solutions, such as the popular Creative Audigy series, the VIA Envy24, or various Turtle Beach boards, among other high end solutions offering superior analog quality. This made the NVAPU/Soundstorm a niche product in a market where keeping board costs low is essential to sales volume. Creative Technology Ltd. ... The Sound Blaster family of sound cards was for many years the de facto standard for audio on the IBM PC compatible system platform, before PC audio became commoditized, and backward-compatibility became less of a feature. ... VIA Technologies logo VIA Technologies is a Taiwanese manufacturer of integrated circuits, mainly motherboard chipsets, CPUs, and memory, and is part of the Formosa Plastics Group. ... A sound card based on VIA Envy24 HT-S chip The VIA Envy24 audio chipset series delivers some of the best sound quality available for personal computers. ... Turtle Beach is both a sound card and headphone manufacture and direct competitor with Creative Labs branded Sound Blaster. ...

Soundstorm/NVAPU's existence was a direct result of Xbox development, with the APU being directly related to the technology used in Microsoft's console. As the technology aged and consumers and OEMs showed a lack of interest in purchasing the more expensive but higher quality chipsets, NVIDIA did not see reason to justify further R&D expenditures. The Xbox is a sixth generation era video game console produced by Microsoft Corporation. ...

External links

• NVIDIA: nForce2
• Anandtech: NVIDIA nForce2 Preview
• Anandtech: NVIDIA's nForce2 Performance Review
• Anandtech: NVIDIA's nForce2 Part II: Diving Deeper