Intel 915GME 3.3 Thermal Management, 3.4 System Features and Operation

Mobile Intel® 915GME Express Chipset —Theory of Operation

Mobile Intel® 915GME Express Chipset

Development Kit User’s Manual April 2007

22 Order Number: 317230-001US

3.3 Thermal Management

The objective of thermal management is to ensure that the temperature of each

component is maintained within specified functional limits. The functional temperature

limit is the range within which the electrical circuits can be expected to meet their

specified performance requirements.

Operation outside the functional limit can degrade system performance and cause

reliability problems.

The development kit is shipped with a fansink thermal solution for installation on the

processor. This thermal solution has been tested in an open-air environment at room

temperature and is sufficient for evaluation purposes. The designer must ensure that

adequate thermal management is provided for any customer-derived designs.

3.4 System Features and Operation

The following sections provide a detailed view of system features and operation. Refer

to Figure 2 and Tab le 7 for the location of the major components of the platform.

The Mobile Intel® 915GME Express Chipset features the 915GMCH and the Intel® I/O

Controller Hub (ICH6-M) chipset.

The Mobile Intel® 915GME Express Chipset GMCH provides the processor interface

optimized for Intel® Pentium® M Processors, system memory interface, DMI and

internal graphics. It provides flexibility and scalability in graphics and memory

subsystem performance. The following sections describe the reference board’s

implementation of the Mobile Intel® 915GME Express Chipset GMCH features.

• 1257 Micro-FCBGA package

• 400/533MHz Front Side Bus

• 32-bit host bus addressing

• System memory controller (DDR2 implemented)

— Supports Dual Channel and Single Channel operation

— Two 200-pin SODIMM slots

— DDR2 400/533

• Direct Media Interface (DMI)

• Integrated graphics based on Intel’s Graphics Media Accelerator 900

— Directly supports on-board VGA and LVDS interfaces.

— Supports resolutions up to 2048 x 1536 @ 85 Hz.

• SDVO interface via PCI Express x16 connector provides maximum display flexibility

— Can drive up to two display outputs

— Maximum single channel resolution of 2048 x 1536 @ 60 Hz

The evaluation board supports DDR2 400/533 main memory. Two 200-pin SODIMM

connectors (one per channel) on the board support unbuffered, non-ECC, single and

double-sided DDR2 400/533 MHz SODIMMs. These SODIMMs provide the ability to use

up to 1 Gbit technology for a maximum of 2 GBytes system memory.