PC Hardware in a Nutshell, 3rd Edition

CPU family support

Chipsets support only one of the following CPU families, because CPU families differ greatly in how they access and manage main memory, cache, and other major system components:

• Intel Pentium Pro/Pentium II/Celeron/Pentium III sixth-generation CPUs

• Intel Pentium 4/Celeron seventh-generation CPUs

• AMD Athlon/Duron sixth-generation CPUs

• AMD Hammer-series seventh-generation CPUs

A particular chipset may support most or all CPUs within a family, or may support only one of them. For example, some chipsets support the Pentium II, Celeron, and Pentium III CPUs, while others support only one or two of those. Also, chipsets designed for late variants within a generation may not support earlier variants within that generation. For example, Intel 815-family chipsets do not support the Pentium II and early variants of the Celeron. Similarly, Intel 875-family chipsets support the current Northwood- and Prescott-core Pentium 4, and will support the forthcoming Dothan-core Pentium 4 processors, but support neither the earlier Willamette-core Pentium 4 nor the Celeron.