I/O Controller Hub (ICH) is a family of

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 ...

southbridge microchips used to manage data communications between a

CPU A central processing unit (CPU), also called a central processor, main processor or just processor, is the electronic circuitry that executes instructions comprising a computer program. The CPU performs basic arithmetic, logic, controlling, a ...

and a

motherboard A motherboard (also called mainboard, main circuit board, mb, mboard, backplane board, base board, system board, logic board (only in Apple computers) or mobo) is the main printed circuit board (PCB) in general-purpose computers and other expand ...

, specifically Intel

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 ...

s based on the

Intel Hub Architecture Intel Hub Architecture (IHA), also known as Accelerated Hub Architecture (AHA) was Intel's architecture for the 8xx family of chipsets, starting in 1999 with the Intel 810. It uses a memory controller hub (MCH) that is connected to an I/O controll ...

. It is designed to be paired with a second support chip known as a northbridge. As with any other southbridge, the ICH is used to connect and control peripheral devices. As CPU speeds increased data transmission between the CPU and support chipset, the support chipset eventually emerged as a

bottleneck Bottleneck literally refers to the narrowed portion (neck) of a bottle near its opening, which limit the rate of outflow, and may describe any object of a similar shape. The literal neck of a bottle was originally used to play what is now known as ...

between the processor and the

. Accordingly, starting with the

Intel 5 Series Intel 5 Series is a computing architecture introduced in 2008 that improves the efficiency and balances the use of communication channels in the motherboard. The architecture consists primarily of a central processing unit (CPU) (connected to the ...

, a new architecture was used that incorporated some functions of the traditional north and south bridge chips onto the CPU itself, with the remaining functions being consolidated into a single Platform Controller Hub (PCH). This replaces the traditional two chip setup.

ICH

The first version of the ICH was released in June 1999 along with the

Intel 810 The Intel 810 chipset was released by Intel in early 1999 with the code-name "Whitney" as a platform for the P6-based Socket 370 CPU series, including the Pentium III and Celeron processors. Some motherboard designs include Slot 1 for older I ...

northbridge. While its predecessor, the PIIX, was connected to the northbridge through an internal PCI bus with a bandwidth of 133 MB/s, the ICH used a proprietary interface (called by Intel ''Hub Interface'') that linked it to the northbridge through an 8-

bit The bit is the most basic unit of information in computing and digital communications. The name is a portmanteau of binary digit. The bit represents a logical state with one of two possible values. These values are most commonly represente ...

wide, 266 MB/s bus. The Hub Interface was a point-to-point connection between different components on the motherboard. Another design decision was to substitute the rigid North-South axis on the motherboard with a star structure. Note that, along with the ICH, Intel evolved other uses of the "Hub" terminology. Thus, the northbridge became the

Memory Controller Hub In computing, a northbridge (also host bridge, or memory controller hub) is one of two chips comprising the core logic chipset architecture on a PC motherboard. A northbridge is connected directly to a CPU via the front-side bus (FSB) to ha ...

(MCH) or if it had integrated graphics (e.g.,

), the Graphics and Memory Controller Hub (GMCH). Other ICH features include: * PCI Rev 2.2 compliant with support for 33 MHz PCI operations. *

Advanced Configuration and Power Interface Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) is an open standard that operating systems can use to discover and configure computer hardware components, to perform power management (e.g. putting unused hardware components to sleep), auto co ...

(ACPI) Support * Integrated IDE controller for

Ultra ATA Parallel ATA (PATA), originally , also known as IDE, is a standard interface designed for IBM PC-compatible computers. It was first developed by Western Digital and Compaq in 1986 for compatible hard drives and CD or DVD drives. The connectio ...

support * Integrated I/O APIC supporting 24 interrupt sources *

System Management Bus The System Management Bus (abbreviated to SMBus or SMB) is a single-ended simple two-wire bus for the purpose of lightweight communication. Most commonly it is found in computer motherboards for communication with the power source for ON/OFF instru ...

(SMBus) with support for

I²C I2C (Inter-Integrated Circuit, ), alternatively known as I2C or IIC, is a synchronous, multi-controller/multi-target (master/slave), packet switched, single-ended, serial communication bus invented in 1982 by Philips Semiconductors. It is wid ...

devices *

AC'97 AC'97 (''Audio Codec '97;'' also MC'97 for ''Modem Codec '97'') is an audio codec standard developed by Intel Architecture Labs in 1997. The standard was used in motherboards, modems, and sound cards. The specification covers two types of compo ...

2.1 Compliant Link * Low Pin Count (LPC) interface The ICH came in two flavors: *82801AA (ICH) - Ultra ATA/66 support, 6 PCI slots, Alert on LAN support *82801AB (ICH0) - Ultra ATA/33 support, 4 PCI slots, no Alert on LAN

ICH2

In early 2000 Intel had suffered a significant setback with the i820 northbridge. Customers were not willing to pay the high prices for

RDRAM Rambus DRAM (RDRAM), and its successors Concurrent Rambus DRAM (CRDRAM) and Direct Rambus DRAM (DRDRAM), are types of synchronous dynamic random-access memory (SDRAM) developed by Rambus from the 1990s through to the early 2000s. The third-generati ...

and either bought i810 or i440BX motherboards or changed to the competition. The hastily developed 82815 northbridge, which supported PC-133 SDRAM, became Intel's method to recover in the middle range segment. The ICH1 or the new ICH2 (360 pins) could be placed to the side of the 82815. An ICH2 could also be used with Intel's 82850 chipset, which, like the 82820 before it, required the use of RDRAM and supported the Pentium 4 CPU. For the first time a

Fast Ethernet In computer networking, Fast Ethernet physical layers carry traffic at the nominal rate of 100 Mbit/s. The prior Ethernet speed was 10 Mbit/s. Of the Fast Ethernet physical layers, 100BASE-TX is by far the most common. Fast Ethern ...

chip (82559) was integrated into the southbridge, depending upon an external PHY chip. The

PATA Pata or PATA may refer to: Places * Pata, Sulu, a Philippine municipality * Pata, Galanta District, a village in Slovakia * Pata, Central African Republic, a village * Pata village (Samoa), a village in Samoa * Pontrilas Army Training Area, a ...

interface was accelerated to ATA/100 and the number of USB connections was doubled to four. The integrated AC'97 sound controller gained support for up to six channel sound. There was also a mobile variant called the ICH2-M. The following variants existed: *82801BA (ICH2) *82801BAM (ICH2-M) Mobile

ICH3

In 2001, Intel delivered ICH3, which was available in two versions: the server version, ICH3-S, running with the E7501 Northbridge, and the mobile version, ICH3-M, which worked with the i830 and i845 northbridges. There is no version for desktop motherboards. In comparison with the ICH2, the changes were limited: "Native Mode" support in the PATA Controller; up to six USB-1.1 devices; SMBus 2.0; and the newest SpeedStep version, which allowed power-saving devices to be switched off during operation. The chip had 421 pins. This has the following variants:
82801CA
(ICH3-S) Server *82801CAM (ICH3-M) Mobile

ICH4

The ICH4 was Intel's southbridge for the year 2002. The most important innovation was the support of USB 2.0 on all six ports. Sound support was improved and corresponded the newest AC'97 specification, version 2.3. Like the preceding generation, the ICH4 had 421 pins. This has the following variants:
82801DB
(ICH4) Base
82801DBM
(ICH4-M) Base Mobile

ICH5

In 2003, and in conjunction with the i865 and i875 northbridges, the ICH5 was created. A

SATA SATA (Serial AT Attachment) is a computer bus interface that connects host bus adapters to mass storage devices such as hard disk drives, optical drives, and solid-state drives. Serial ATA succeeded the earlier Parallel ATA (PATA) standard t ...

host controller was integrated. The ICH5R variant additionally supported

RAID Raid, RAID or Raids may refer to: Attack * Raid (military), a sudden attack behind the enemy's lines without the intention of holding ground * Corporate raid, a type of hostile takeover in business * Panty raid, a prankish raid by male college ...

0 on SATA ports. Eight USB-2.0 ports were available. The chip had full support for

ACPI Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) is an open standard that operating systems can use to discover and configure computer hardware components, to perform power management (e.g. putting unused hardware components to sleep), auto con ...

2.0. It had 460 pins. Since 1999 the 266 MB/s hub interface was assumed to be a bottleneck. In the new chip generation, Intel therefore offered an optional port for a Gigabit Ethernet Controller directly attached to the MCH. The goal of this CSA technology was to reduce the latencies for Gigabit LAN by direct memory access and to free up bandwidth on the Hub interface between ICH and MCH for non removable disk and PCI data traffic. Since mid-2004, the large motherboard manufacturers noticed an increased complaint ratio with motherboards equipped with ICH5. A cause was the insufficient ESD tolerance of certain ICH5 steppings. In particular, when connecting USB devices via front panels, the chips died by discharges of static electricity. Intel reacted to the problem by shipping ICH5 with increased ESD tolerance. Effective ESD preventive measures on USB ports are difficult and costly, since they can impair the quality of the USB-2.0 high-speed signals. Many motherboard manufacturers had omitted the necessary high-quality safety devices for front panel connectors for cost reasons. This has the following variants: *82801E (C-ICH) Communications
82801EB
(ICH5) Base
82801ER
(ICH5R) RAID *82801EBM (ICH5-M) Base Mobile
6300ESB
(ESB) Enterprise Southbridge

ICH6

ICH6 was Intel's first

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 ...

southbridge. It made four PCI Express ×1 ports available. Faster ×16-Ports were accommodated in the MCH. The bottleneck Hub interface was replaced by a new Direct Media Interface (in reality a PCI Express ×4 link) with 1 GB/s of bandwidth per direction. Support for

Intel High Definition Audio Intel High Definition Audio (IHDA) (also called HD Audio or development codename Azalia) is a specification for the audio sub-system of personal computers. It was released by Intel in 2004 as the successor to their AC'97 PC audio standard. Featur ...

was included. In addition,

and the classical PCI 2.3 were still supported. Two additional SATA ports were added, and one PATA channel was removed. The ICH6R variant supported RAID modes 0, 1, 0+1 and the Intel specific "Matrix RAID". ICH6R and ICH6-M implemented AHCI SATA controllers for the first time. The chips had 652 pins. Originally Intel had planned to bring two further variants under the names ICH6W and ICH6RW to the market, which should contain a software Access Point for a

Wireless LAN A wireless LAN (WLAN) is a wireless computer network that links two or more devices using wireless communication to form a local area network (LAN) within a limited area such as a home, school, computer laboratory, campus, or office buildi ...

. These chips are published. This has the following variants:
82801FB
(ICH6) Base
82801FR
(ICH6R) RAID
82801FBM
(ICH6M) Base Mobile
6311ESB
(ESB2) Enterprise Southbridge
6321ESB
(ESB2) Enterprise Southbridge with integrated LAN for embedded

ICH7

Asus P5PL2 - Intel NH82801GB - SL8FX-93719

The ICH7 started to ship in mid-2005 together with Intel's new high-end MCH, the i955X. Two additional PCI express ×1-Ports, a SATA 2.0 Controller for up to 300 MB/s data transmission rate (the mobile version has this capability disabled), as well as support for Intel's "Active Management Technology" were added. Only the ICH7DH, ICH7R, ICH7-M, ICH7-M DH chip have AHCI support. The ICH7 (Base) and ICH7-U (Ultra-mobile) chip do not support AHCI. The ICH7R additionally supports RAID 5. This has the following variants:
82801GB
(ICH7) Base
82801GR
(ICH7R) RAID
82801GDH
(ICH7DH) Digital Home
82801GBM
(ICH7M) Mobile
82801GHM
(ICH7M DH) Mobile Digital Home *PC82801GU (ICH7-U) Ultra-mobile

ICH8

ICH8 is offered in several different versions and is the complement to the 965 class MCH chips. The non-mobile ICH8 does not have a traditional PATA interface, and just one AC'97. In practice, most baseboard manufacturers still offered PATA appropriate connection types using additional chips from manufacturers such as

JMicron JMicron Technology Corporation () is a Taiwanese fabless technology design house based in Hsinchu, Taiwan. As a manufacturer of integrated circuits, they produce controller chips for bridge devices. History 2001-2007 The company was founded in S ...

or Marvell. The ICH8 was the first ICH model to control

eSATA SATA (Serial AT Attachment) is a computer bus interface that connects host bus adapters to mass storage devices such as hard disk drives, optical drives, and solid-state drives. Serial ATA succeeded the earlier Parallel ATA (PATA) standard t ...

and Gigabit Ethernet, which were previously accommodated in the MCH. The base version only includes four SATA 2.0 ports. The ICH8R (RAID) and above chips support six SATA devices. Additionally the ICH8DH (Digital Home) has Quick Resume and can be used together with the P965 and/or G965 in Intel Viiv-certified systems. The counterpart to the ICH8DO (Digital Office) is the Q965 MCH, which together provide

Intel vPro Intel vPro technology is an umbrella marketing term used by Intel for a large collection of computer hardware technologies, including VT-x, VT-d, Trusted Execution Technology (TXT), and Intel Active Management Technology (AMT). When the vPro ...

compatibility. This has the following variants:
82801HB
(ICH8) Base
82801HR
(ICH8R) RAID
82801HH
(ICH8DH) Digital Home
82801HO
(ICH8DO) Digital Office
82801HM
(ICH8M) Mobile
82801HBM
(ICH8BM) Base Mobile
82801HEM
(ICH8EM) Enhanced Mobile

ICH9

The ICH9 came out in May 2007 in the P35 (Bearlake) chipset. It removes all PATA support. In practice, many motherboard manufacturers continue providing PATA support using third-party chips. Officially only the ICH9R, ICH9DH, ICH9DO chip have AHCI support. This part has the following variants:
82801IB
(ICH9) Base officially has neither AHCI or

support, but with a simple BIOS mod can add support for AHCI.
82801IR
(ICH9R) RAID with AHCI and

Support
82801IH
(ICH9DH) Digital Home with AHCI and no

Support
82801IO
(ICH9DO) Digital Office with AHCI and

Support
82801IBM
(ICH9M) Base Mobile
82801IEM
(ICH9EM) Enhanced Mobile
82801IUX
(ICH9M-SFF) Ultra Mobile

ICH10

Intel launched the ICH10 southbridge in June 2008 with the P45 (Eaglelake) chipset. ICH10 implements the 1GB/s bidirectional DMI interface to the "northbridge" device. It supports various interfaces to "low-speed" peripherals, and it supports a suite of housekeeping functions. ICH10 also offers reduced load on CPU and decreased power consumption. ICH10 does not offer direct PATA or LPT support. Notably there is support of 'hot-swap' functionality. The RAID variant also supports a new technology called “ Turbo Memory”. This allows the use of flash memory on a motherboard for fast caching. Peripheral support includes: *Six PCIe version 1.1 ports, which can be configured as either 2 + (4 ×1) or 2 + (1 ×4). *PCI bus *Six SATA 3 Gbit/s ports in either legacy IDE or AHCI mode. Can support external eSATA *

*Integrated gigabit LAN. *Two

EHCI A host controller interface (HCI) is a register-level interface that enables a host controller for USB or IEEE 1394 hardware to communicate with a host controller driver in software. The driver software is typically provided with an operating syst ...

host controllers (which support up to twelve USB 2.0 connections) with companion UHCI controllers to handle low-speed and full-speed USB devices This part has the following variants:
82801JB
(ICH10) Base
82801JR
(ICH10R) RAID
82801JH
(ICH10D) Digital Home
82801JO
(ICH10DO) Digital Office

PCH architecture

As CPU speeds increased, a

eventually emerged between the processor and the

, due to limitations caused by data transmission between the CPU and southbridge. Accordingly, starting with the

, a new architecture was used where some functions of the north and south bridge chips were moved to the CPU, and others were consolidated into a Platform Controller Hub (PCH). * Some northbridge functions, including the memory controller, the integrated GPU (

Intel HD Graphics Intel Graphics Technology (GT) is the collective name for a series of integrated graphics processors (IGPs) produced by Intel that are manufactured on the same package or die as the central processing unit (CPU). It was first introduced in 20 ...

), the graphics card interface ( PCIe x16), were integrated into the CPU, while the PCH took over the remaining functions in addition to the traditional roles of the southbridge. The northbridge was therefore eliminated. * Other northbridge functions and all southbridge functions were migrated to a new Platform Controller Hub. These included clocking (the system clock),

Flexible Display Interface FDI or Flexible Display Interface is an interconnect created by Intel in order to allow the communication of the HD Graphics integrated GPU found on supported CPUs with the PCH southbridge where display connectors are attached. It provides a path b ...

(FDI) and Direct Media Interface (DMI). The FDI is only used when the chipset requires supporting a CPU with integrated graphics.

References

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:I O Controller Hub Intel products Intel chipsets

ICH