Specs

NVIDIA will be producing two nForce3 Professional variants: the nForce3 Pro 150 (which is available now) and the nForce3 Pro 250, which will be available in the fall. Here are the key specs for the nForce3 Pro 150:

The list

NVIDIA enterprise-class networking technology

NVIDIA IEEE 802.3 MAC (Media Access Controller)

Supports 10/100 BaseT Ethernet/Fast Ethernet

ACR and CNR Interface Support

NVIDIA StreamThru technology

NVIDIA RAID Technology

RAID 0 disk striping for highest system and application performance

RAID 1 disk mirroring support for fault tolerance

RAID 0+1 disk striping and mirroring for highest performance with fault tolerance

Triple Fast Ultra ATA-133 disk drive controllers

Each interface supports two devices for a total of six devices

Third IDE interface can support two IDE-to-SATA bridge master/slave fonifugration devices to support up to 2 SATA ports

Third IDE channel additional supports an overclocked mode to achieve UDMA-150 to match the 150MB/sec of SATA link interface

AGP 8X Interface
HyperTransport
USB 2.0

Support for up to 6 ports

AC’97 2.1 compliant interface

Supports 2, 4, or 6-channel audio

SPDIF output (Stereo or AC-3 output)

Single chip design

If you recall the Opteron architecture, the memory controller is now integrated on the CPU itself, rather than the North Bridge of the chipset. The integrated memory controller is good for CPU’s performance, as it significantly reduces latency and increases memory bandwidth.

nForce3 Pro block diagram

We’ve also found that an inefficient memory controller can hamper overall system performance. For example, VIA had to rework the memory controller in its KT266 chipset, hence the KT266A was born. By removing the chipset’s memory controller from the equation, AMD has more control over system performance, regardless of chipset.

NVIDIA’s single chip design makes life even easier for motherboard manufacturers, as the simplified board design gives them even more flexibility, but all the credit can’t go to the CPU’s integrated memory controller. Like other nForce products, nForce3 Pro utilizes a 0.15-micron manufacturing process, allowing NVIDIA to cram more features on the chip. This also lowers power consumption and dissipated heat. Another benefit of single chip chipset architectures is reduced latency, increasing platform performance.