AMD 690G chipset to integrate DVI, HDCP and lots more.
Thanks to bjterry62 for finding a couple of great news articles on AMD's upcoming chipset, the 690G. As he mentions in his forum post, the 690G is expected to have HDCP and H.264 acceleration making this a dream board for Media Center PCs!
The 690G chipset is made up of the AMD RS690G north bridge and the AMD SB600 south bridge, said to include the ATI "X1250" graphics core. However, although the chipset is aimed at the Vista platform and its DirectX 10 graphics, the integrated core is only DirectX 9.0 capable, the source said; specifically, it contains a 128-bit interface capable of 2048×1536@ 32-bit-per-pixel color depths. Features include 6-sample antialiasing support, indirect vertex OpenGL support, plus Windows Motion Video 9 support in hardware, an integrated TV encoder and component output, plus Macrovision 7.1 copy protection.
A x16 PCI Express connector is standard, as with most PC chipsets; in addition, up to four x1 connectors provide additional connectivity.
The video outputs, however, have been designed with, well, video in mind. The 690G contains integrated DVI, on-chip HDCP 1.2 key storage and an HDMI 1.1 interface; an integrated HD Audio controller supports the transmission of HD Audio data, complete with equalizer and 5.1-channel virtualization. Like a growing number of other chipsets, the chipset supports two digital outputs, which can use independent resolutions and color depths. Up to three independent monitors can be used with the presence of an independent ATI graphics card; however, no formal CrossFire support is included, according to specifications provided by the
Although the integrated graphics core carries the ATI Radeon X1250 name, it is actually a derivative of AMD’s previous ATI Radeon X700 graphics core. The ATI Radeon X1250 IGP sports enhanced video processing features. New to the ATI Radeon X700-derived graphics core is the AVIVO video processing engine. With AVIVO, the ATI Radeon X1250 IGP accelerates H.264 and VC-1 video formats in hardware. HD DVD and Blu-ray use H.264 and VC-1 video formats.
I am sure it won't be a gaming powerhouse, but would make for an ideal media only HTPC.