The Grantsdale chipset PCB Design Kit

Published:2011/8/2 1:46:00 Author:Phyllis From:SeekIC

The Grantsdale referred to chipset made by Mentor Graphics Corporation for providing Intel Corporation with drop-in core layout (DCL) kits with the Mentor Graphics® Expedition™ PCB design flow. This DCL kit was a follow-on to the Intel 915G/P and 925XE Express Chipset kits integrated the CPU, chipset and other motherboard components for use with the Expedition PCB design flow made personal computer motherboard OEMs and ODMs to shorten their design times, optimize performance and improve quality become possible. As microprocessor speeds continued to increase, it is becoming more complex to meet interconnect timing and signal integrity constraints while placing and routing the critical components, and also minimizing the number of layers and overall size of the PCB.

Intel addressed this challenge by providing a reference motherboard design in Mentor’s Expedition design solution to its customers. As a result, motherboard manufacturers could devote all their time on the value added areas of the board like the PCI bus, audio components and slower speed peripheral buses. This DCL was expected to save up to eight weeks of experience time.The Expedition Series offered advanced functionality with ease-of-use for the creation of today’s most complex PCB designs. The Expedition Series featured the industry’s best place and route environment and was powered by AutoActive® technology. The scalable product configuration of the Expedition Series allowed designers to choose the right level of automation for their design needs. Expedition’s tightly integrated systems design environment featured a common database and common user interfaces and rules to ensure data integrity is maintained from concept to manufacturing.

Intel hoped to revolutionize the PC market by turning ordiary computers into home entertainment centers. The technologies incorporated into the Grantsdale were more than that of any previous chipsets.

Being designed to enhance playback of DVDs and provide home movies with theatre-quality sound, the Grantsdale chip also provided a wireless hub connecting to other home devices. Unlike Intel’s older Centrino chip that enabled laptop computers to connect to wi-fi networks in locations such as airports and coffee bars, the Grantsdale transmitted the wi-fi signal to other devices anywhere within a radius of around 100ft. This enabled a Grantsdale PC to transmit high-definition video to a television through a wireless connection. By connecting with the television, PC users will be able to stream television programs, movies and music from the internet into the living room.

Intel was hoping that the chips would power a new generation of PCs that would rekindle the kind of excitement that the latest "Intel inside" PCs generated in the company’s glory years during the technology boom in the late 1990s. Intel was the only chip company to use advertising successfully to brand its product.

The company was also betting that the launch of the chips would coincide with the corporate world’s need to upgrade its PC infrastructure after a four-year spending freeze. One variation of the Grantsdale chip is specifically designed for office PCs to minimize maintenance as well as providing wi-fi connectivity and superior graphics.

The consumer version also required less back-up than previous home wireless networks. According to Intel, it needed only four mouse clicks to install it as a wi-fi base station. And, unlike the computing industry’s earlier attempts to network the home to connect to appliances such as fridges and cookers, Intel had focused on a commercially proven appetite for home entertainment.




As well as enabling the PC to act as a wi-fi base station, the chip had a high-definition audio capability that has crossed the home electronics and computing divide by supporting home audio electronics standards such as Dolby sound. All versions of the chip will have a superior graphics capability compared with former models.

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