Intel has been known for producing its own motherboards for its processors for quite some time. However, these have always featured the processor giant"s own chipsets. For the first time in recent memory, Intel has introduced a motherboard based on a third party"s core logic. The Desktop Board D101GGC uses ATI"s Radeon XPRESS 200 chipset and is targeted for mainstream customers.
The Desktop Board D101GGC is a fairly feature-packed motherboard, offering 4x SATA 150 ports, support for 2GB RAM, integrated DX9 capable Radeon graphics, a free x16 PCI Express slot for graphics expansion, and support for Intel Pentium 4 and Celeron D processors.
The emergence of boards such as this is a result of Intel"s desire to shift its manufacturing to higher-end chipsets only, which it announced in August. However, Intel still needs boards available to sell its lower end processors, which could prompt more third party support in the future.