i820 Camino was a difficult chipset for Intel to finally release. Camino was originally scheduled for release around May of 1999, but was delayed because of problems with its handling of RDRAM. Release was rescheduled to later that year, but was delayed yet again due to problems dealing with more than two slots for SDRAM. They finally did get Camino out, but the whole affair was an embarassment for Intel.
Camino was designed for high end use with the Pentium III. The first major difference between the BX and the Camino is that the Camino has a bus for the memory that runs at a multiplied speed of the Front Side bus just like the processor. It uses DRDRAM (Direct RamBus DRAM) at speeds of 300 (PC 600), 356(PC700), and 400Mhz(PC800). But, being the front side bus on Camino motherboards will only start out at 133Mhz, the CPU can only take advantage of 33% more memory bandwidth than the 440BX.
Camino also abandoned the traditional northbridge/southbridge chipset architecture and went with a new architecture called Intel Hub Architecture. First seen with i810, this architecture still consists of two parts, but they are the AGP Graphics Memory Controller Hub (GMCH) and the I/O Controller Hub. The GMCH fulfills many of the same functions as the north bridge: communucation with the CPU over the front side bus, memory access, and AGP bus. It also contains integrated video in some cases. But, unlike the northbridge, the GMCH does not have a PCI bus. The PCI bus is handled by the IHA, along with all the typical functions of the south bridge. The ICH communicates with the GMCH at 233 MBps over its own bus. This new bus is optimized by Intel to be able to differentiate certain types of data like streaming video and act accordingly.
The 82802 Firmware Hub (FWH) stores motherboard BIOS in a 4 Mbit EEPROM. It also contains a hardware random number generator which could be used for security, stronger encryption, and digital signing on the Internet. The FWH also brought in a new method of updating the BIOS. Intel was planning on the fact that floppy drives would become obsolete, and using a boot diskette was/is the most common method of flashing a BIOS. Intel chose to place their BIOS-Update-Patch on the Internet. You download the file “Express BIOS Update” and execute it under Windows . After re-boot, your i820-based motherboard is updated with new BIOS.
The memory translator hub allows the chipset to support multiple memory types. This unit is what caused CaminoGate, the hubbub Intle went through at Camino’s launch time. The chip just wasn’t reliable. It depended on the presence of a serial presence detect chip on the SDRAM module, something not all SDRAMs had. Intel later through up their hands, issued a recall and began to provide free RDRAM modules to those customers who fell into this trap.
Due to the launch problems, i820 was a problem for Intel, and failed to replace BX has the Intel chipset of choice.
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