The AMD 690 chipset series is an integrated graphics

chipset In a computer system, a chipset is a set of electronic components in one or more integrated circuits known as a "Data Flow Management System" that manages the data flow between the processor, memory and peripherals. It is usually found on the mo ...

family which was developed and manufactured by AMD subsidiary

ATI Ati or ATI may refer to: * Ati people, a Negrito ethnic group in the Philippines **Ati language (Philippines), the language spoken by this people group ** Ati-Atihan festival, an annual celebration held in the Philippines *Ati language (China), a ...

for both AMD and Intel platforms focusing on both desktop and mobile computing markets. The corresponding chipset for the

Intel Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California. It is the world's largest semiconductor chip manufacturer by revenue, and is one of the developers of the x86 ser ...

platform has a marketing name of ''Radeon Xpress 1200 series''. The chipsets production began in late 2006 with codenames ''RS690'' and ''RS600'', where both of them share similar internal chip design, targeting at the desktop market. Mobile versions of both chipsets have codenames ''RS690M'' and ''RS600M''. The marketing name for this chipset on the Intel platform is the ''Radeon Xpress 1200 series'' (Radeon Xpress 1200 to Radeon Xpress 1270) while the name for the chipset on the AMD platform is ''690G''. Both the 690G and Radeon Xpress 1200 chipsets include an integrated graphics processing unit (IGP) based on the ATI Radeon X700 series GPUs with

ATI Avivo ATI Avivo is a set of hardware and low level software features present on the ATI Radeon R520 family of GPUs and all later ATI Radeon products. ATI Avivo was designed to offload video decoding, encoding, and post-processing from a computer's ...

technology included for hardware video acceleration. Mobile versions have reduced power consumption with adaptive power management features ( PowerPlay). The 690G and Radeon Xpress 1250 chipsets are direct successors to Xpress 1600 integrated graphics chipsets (codenamed ''RS480'' and ''RS400''). Starting in late 2006, mobile versions of the 690 chipset (''RS690M'') were being rolled out in mass by major notebook computer manufacturers, including HP, Asus, Dell, Toshiba, Acer, and others. For some OEMs (including Dell and Acer), the M690 series chipset was going to replace the Radeon Xpress 1150 (codenamed ''RS485M'') on the mobile platform, and desktop variants of the 690 chipset were announced in February 2007. The 690 chipset series consists of three members: 690G, 690V and M690T. The planned "''RD690''" enthusiast chipset was canceled in the official roadmap without explanation and no release date was given for the "''RX690''" chipset which has no IGP and only one PCI-E x16 slot. After ATI was acquired by AMD in July 2006, plans for the Radeon Xpress 1250 chipset for the Intel platform were canceled while the 690G/M690 chipsets for the AMD platform became the main production target. AMD released the chipsets to only two vendors, Abit and AsRock. Abit signed on prior to the AMD acquisition and AsRock was given the remaining inventory of RS600 chips for the Chinese market. On AMD Technology Analyst Day 2007, AMD announced that 4 million units of 690 chipsets had been shipped to customers, calling it a commercial success. With that in mind, AMD announced on January 21, 2008 that the series will be further extended to

embedded system An embedded system is a computer system—a combination of a computer processor, computer memory, and input/output peripheral devices—that has a dedicated function within a larger mechanical or electronic system. It is ''embedded ...

s with the last member, the AMD M690E chipset.

Lineup

The chipset has several variants, they are summarized below, sorted by their northbridge codename. The first one is the ''RS690'' which is the basic chipset and implemented now as 690G. The second one is the ''RS690C'' which is a simplified version of 690G and without

TMDS Transition-minimized differential signaling (TMDS), a technology for transmitting high-speed serial data, is used by the DVI and HDMI video interfaces, as well as by other digital communication interfaces. The transmitter incorporates an advan ...

support and named as 690V. The third one in the series is the ''RS690M'' for mobile platforms, named M690. The fourth one is the ''RS690MC'', a simplified version of M690 and without

support, called M690V. Another one in the lineup is the ''RS690T'', another variant to the M690 chipset with a local frame buffer (see

below Below may refer to: *Earth *Ground (disambiguation) *Soil *Floor *Bottom (disambiguation) *Less than *Temperatures below freezing *Hell or underworld People with the surname *Ernst von Below (1863–1955), German World War I general *Fred Below ( ...

). A member for the embedded systems, the M690E, is basically a M690T with different display output configurations.

Key features

IGP General features

Chipset models in the series (excluding RD690 and RX690) feature an

Integrated Graphics Processor A graphics processing unit (GPU) is a specialized electronic circuit designed to manipulate and alter memory to accelerate the creation of images in a frame buffer intended for output to a display device. GPUs are used in embedded systems, ...

(IGP) which is incorporated into the northbridge and manufactured on an 80 nm fabrication process. The IGP's 3D architecture is based on

Radeon R420 The R420 GPU, developed by ATI Technologies, was the company's basis for its 3rd-generation DirectX 9.0/OpenGL 2.0-capable graphics cards. Used first on the Radeon X800, the R420 was produced on a 0.13 micrometer (130 nm) low-''K'' photolithogr ...

and contains 4 pixel pipelines capable of Shader Model version 2.0b with

DirectX 9 Microsoft DirectX is a collection of application programming interfaces (APIs) for handling tasks related to multimedia, especially game programming and video, on Microsoft platforms. Originally, the names of these APIs all began with "Direct", ...

and OpenGL 2.0 compatibility but lacks hardware vertex processing. It uses a

shared memory architecture In computer science, shared memory is memory that may be simultaneously accessed by multiple programs with an intent to provide communication among them or avoid redundant copies. Shared memory is an efficient means of passing data between progr ...

, meaning system RAM is shared with the IGP. The IGP was the first chip in ATI's integrated lineup that included

capabilities (also seen in the

Radeon X1000 series The R520 (codenamed Fudo) is a graphics processing unit (GPU) developed by ATI Technologies and produced by TSMC. It was the first GPU produced using a 90 nm photolithography process. The R520 is the foundation for a line of DirectX 9.0 ...

), and is therefore capable of decoding videos of resolution up to

720p 720p (1280×720 px; also called HD ready, standard HD or just HD) is a progressive HDTV signal format with 720 horizontal lines/1280 columns and an aspect ratio (AR) of 16:9, normally known as widescreen HDTV (1.78:1). All major HDTV broadcas ...

1080i 1080i (also known as Full HD or BT.709) is a combination of frame resolution and scan type. 1080i is used in high-definition television (HDTV) and high-definition video. The number "1080" refers to the number of horizontal lines on the scree ...

in hardware.Gasior, Geoff
AMD's 690G chipset: Platformization ahead
Tech Report, February 28, 2007. Both chipsets in this family are fully compatible with the

Windows Aero Windows Aero (a backronym for ''Authentic, Energetic, Reflective, and Open'') is a design language introduced in the Windows Vista operating system. The changes made in the Aero interface affected many elements of the Windows interface, includi ...

interface and are

Windows Vista Windows Vista is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was the direct successor to Windows XP, which was released five years before, at the time being the longest time span between successive releases of ...

Premium certified. Also supported by the chipset are PCI slots, high definition 7.1 channel audio and

Gigabit Ethernet In computer networking, Gigabit Ethernet (GbE or 1 GigE) is the term applied to transmitting Ethernet frames at a rate of a gigabit per second. The most popular variant, 1000BASE-T, is defined by the IEEE 802.3ab standard. It came into use ...

. The northbridge has a TDP of 13.8

Watt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named after James ...

sHKEPC test report on RS690 IGP chipset
/ref> or an average of 8

s,XBit Labs report
and is pin compatible with

RS485 RS-485, also known as TIA-485(-A) or EIA-485, is a standard defining the electrical characteristics of drivers and receivers for use in serial communications systems. Electrical signaling is balanced, and multipoint systems are supported. The s ...

northbridge. The northbridge supports

HyperTransport HyperTransport (HT), formerly known as Lightning Data Transport, is a technology for interconnection of computer processors. It is a bidirectional serial/parallel high-bandwidth, low- latency point-to-point link that was introduced on April 2 ...

2.0 at 1 GHz, and an additional 3

PCI Express PCI Express (Peripheral Component Interconnect Express), officially abbreviated as PCIe or PCI-e, is a high-speed serial computer expansion bus standard, designed to replace the older PCI, PCI-X and AGP bus standards. It is the common ...

x1 slots. The northbridge and southbridge ( SB600) are connected via "ALink II". This is in reality 4 PCIe lanes, providing 2 GB/s bandwidth.

690G

For 690G, the IGP was named "Radeon X1250", operating at 400 MHz clock frequency, with

VGA Video Graphics Array (VGA) is a video display controller and accompanying de facto graphics standard, first introduced with the IBM PS/2 line of computers in 1987, which became ubiquitous in the PC industry within three years. The term can now ...

HDMI High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) is a proprietary audio/video interface for transmitting uncompressed video data and compressed or uncompressed digital audio data from an HDMI-compliant source device, such as a display controlle ...

and dual link

DVI-D Digital Visual Interface (DVI) is a video display interface developed by the Digital Display Working Group (DDWG). The digital interface is used to connect a video source, such as a video display controller, to a display device, such as a co ...

output with

HDCP High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP) is a form of digital copy protection developed by Intel Corporation to prevent copying of digital audio and video content as it travels across connections. Types of connections include DisplayPor ...

support for single link transmission and

support for HDMI output. (however a DVI to D-sub adapter will not work and is not compatible with DVI-D interface due to the lack of the four analog pins of DVI-A and DVI-I) One HDMI output can be active at the DVI/HDMI interface or at the TMDS interface.

support is limited to only one of those interfaces at any time. The chipset also supports ''

and

DVI Digital Visual Interface (DVI) is a video display interface developed by the Digital Display Working Group (DDWG). The digital interface is used to connect a video source, such as a video display controller, to a display device, such as a comp ...

'' -or- ''

and

'' dual output simultaneously, to achieve a maximum of two active out of three attached monitor outputs, called " SurroundView", and up to four independent, active displays with an additional video card. The 690G chipset also supports a maximum of 24 additional

lanes and a

x16 expansion slot, and the chipset mixes audio and video signals and output through the HDMI interface. The mobile version of the chipset is the M690 chipset (codenamed ''RS690M''). AMD dropped support for Windows (starting from Windows 7) and Linux drivers made for Radeon X1250 graphics integrated in the 690G chipset, stating that users should use the open-source graphics drivers instead. The latest available proprietary AMD Linux driver for the 690G chipset is

fglrx AMD Radeon Software is a device driver and utility software package for AMD's graphics cards and APUs. Its graphical user interface is built with Electron and is compatible with 64-bit Windows and Linux distributions. Software bundle Func ...

version 9.3, which is outdated and no more compatible with current Linux distributions. The free and opensource driver for AMD graphics in the Linux kernel supports both 3D acceleration and hardware decoders as of kernel 3.12, and is unlikely to drop support of this (or any AMD graphics it already supports) in the foreseeable future. Being part of the kernel, no installation/configuration is needed.

690V

For 690V, "Radeon X1200" was the name of the IGP, with clock frequency of 350 MHz. The major differences between the 690G and 690V chipsets is that the 690V chipset lacks support for

and HDMI output, and is therefore limited to

LVDS Low-voltage differential signaling (LVDS), also known as TIA/EIA-644, is a technical standard that specifies electrical characteristics of a differential, serial signaling standard. LVDS operates at low power and can run at very high speeds ...

output only. The mobile version of the chipset is the M690V chipset (codenamed ''RS690MC'').

M690T

Originally codenamed "RS690T", the chipset is for mobile platforms only. Featuring an optional 16-bit DDR2 side-port memory with maximum 128

MiB The byte is a unit of digital information that most commonly consists of eight bits. Historically, the byte was the number of bits used to encode a single character of text in a computer and for this reason it is the smallest addressable unit ...

AMD M690T specification page
/ref> capacity as local frame buffer. Sources revealed that the RS690T chipset may pair with SB700 southbridge and named as the "trevally" platform focusing the mobile market. It is worth to note that the RS690T chipset has been added to AMD "longevity programme", that is AMD committed to supply the chipset for at least five years after general availability. However, currently, M690T chipset was coupled with SB600 southbridge. The chipset was officially referred as "M690T chipset with Radeon X1270 graphics".

M690E

Announced on January 21, 2008, the M690E chipset as the suffix "E" suggests, is solely for

s, providing the same feature sets as the M690T chipset, but with the analog TV output interface replaced with a secondary

output interface, providing a total of two

outputs with

support limited to one of those interfaces at any time.

Radeon Xpress 1250

A version of the 690G chipset for Intel processors codenamed ''RS600''; supports all of 690G features, but the HyperTransport controller is replaced with a QDR FSB controller and it also contains a dual-channel DDR2 memory controller. IGP clocked with 500 MHz instead of 400 MHz of the 690G. Since Intel has not given the 1333 MHz FSB license to

ATI Technologies ATI Technologies Inc. (commonly called ATI) was a Canadian semiconductor technology corporation based in Markham, Ontario, that specialized in the development of graphics processing units and chipsets. Founded in 1985 as Array Technology Inc., ...

after the company was purchased by AMD, the Radeon Xpress 1250 only comes with official support of 1066 MHz

Front Side Bus A front-side bus (FSB) is a computer communication interface ( bus) that was often used in Intel-chip-based computers during the 1990s and 2000s. The EV6 bus served the same function for competing AMD CPUs. Both typically carry data between the ...

(FSB). However, supporting 1333 MHz FSB was obviously given higher priorities when RS600 was being developed, resulting Xpress 1250 motherboards actually have the support for 1333 MHz FSB via

overclocking In computing, overclocking is the practice of increasing the clock rate of a computer to exceed that certified by the manufacturer. Commonly, operating voltage is also increased to maintain a component's operational stability at accelerated sp ...

, and support all 1333 MHz FSB Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Quad microprocessors. Only

Abit Universal ABIT Co., Ltd (formerly ABIT Computer Corporation) was a computer components manufacturer, based in Taiwan, active since the 1980s. Its core product line were motherboards aimed at the overclocker market. Abit experienced serious fin ...

has released a motherboard with this chipset as a result of signed agreement before the AMD-ATI merger, while ASRock was reported to have purchased all of the remaining inventory of RS600 resulting from a strategic move of AMD to clear all RS600 inventories,DigiTimes report
retrieved July 14, 2007 thus making Abit and AsRock the only RS600 motherboard manufacturers.

Northbridge issues (690G, M690, 690V, M690V, M690T, M690E)

AMD does not provide any RS690 errata publicly (AMD document ER_RS690A5 for Revision A11 & ER_RS690B4 and its addendum for Revision A12). Most OSes require patches in order to work reliably. *Windows platform: ** Stop error 0x000000EA might be rarely encountered due to an internal hardware optimization on revision A12 northbridges (related to AMD Errata Addendum of ER_RS690B4). AMD will release a new driver in 2010 to fix it.

Southbridge issues(SB600)

AMD does not provide any SB600 errata publicly (AMD document ER_IXP600AB7 for Revision A12, ER_IXP600AC33 for Revision A13 and ER_SB600AD12 for Revision A21). Most OSes require patches in order to work reliably. *Windows platform: ** Microsoft KB98209

** Microsoft KB93136

** Microsoft KB92405

*Linux platform: ** Universal Serial Bus, USB freeze when multiple devices are connected through hub (related to AMD Product Advisory PA_SB600AL

** SATA soft reset fails when Port multiplier, PMP is enabled and devices will be not detected (does not apply to A11 and A12 revisions) ** SATA internal errors are ignored because SATA will set Serial ATA port Error when it should not ** SATA commands in AHCI mode are limited to 255 sectors per command because of NCQ problems ** SATA controller does not support MSI

List of mainboards using 690 chipset

The lineup and output features comparison for 690 chipset series motherboards are summarized below. ''Note'': data below does not include RS690M and RS600M - mobile editions of RS690 and RS600 chipsets.

References

External links

ATI official websiteAMD official websiteEmbedded single board computers with AMD chipsetsMotherboards with AMD chipsets
{{DEFAULTSORT:Amd 690 Chipset Series AMD chipsets ATI Technologies products Computer-related introductions in 2007