Does Santa Rosa 965PM chipset have 64-bit or 128-bit FSB ?

[Defenestration]

I was reading the following comparison/review of the DELL e1705 and XPS M1710,

http://www.anandtech.com/printarticle.aspx?i=2766

which mentions that the 945GM/PM chipset used in the above laptops only has a 64-bit DDR FSB (running at a maximum of 667MHz). According to the reviewer, this means that while it supports dual channel memory, there is little advantage in running dual channel over a single channel - at least if you use DDR2-667 memory. Is this true when running 2 x 1GB 667 MHz modules (ie. 2GB in dual channel mode), and is it true when running 2 x 2GB 667 MHz modules (ie. 4GB in dual channel mode) ?

I know the new 965GM/PM chipset, to be used in Santa Rosa, has a max FSB speed of 800MHz, but does it have a wider FSB than 945GM/PM ?

[Notebook Solutions]

Great question, I also wonder the same.

As far as I understand The Santa Rosa platform will come with 800 FSB models and 667 FSB models. They will all have the Chrestline chipset and have the Kedron wireless lan.

But like you said: will the RAM controller be 64-bit or 128-bit. I also wonder if Santa Rosa will have 800 MHz DDR2 support. The goodside of having 800 MHz DDR2 is that you can let it run 1:1 with FSB, which gives better performance because the processor does not need to work with dividers.

I once asked this question but I did not really get a clear answer. Hopefully someone will answer your question.

-Notebook Solutions

[Notebook Solutions]

Too bad nobody has an answer to our question... anyone out there that can help?

[Defenestration]

Indeed. I have done a fair bit of googling/yahooing/altavistaing, but haven't yet been able to find the answer myself yet.

However, the docs for the desktop 965 chipset specify it supports two 64-bit channels, so it would appear that the 965PM chipset will also stay at 64-bit (having just a faster FSB).