OK, STOP WHATEVER YOU ARE DOING AND PAY ATTENTION.

It seems like just yesterday that I was saving up for a new AGP style graphics card and DIMMs because the new motherboards that Pentium IIs took offered that graphics interface and didn't have SIMM slots. You know what its like in PC hardware. Things are out of date the moment you buy them, but now and again the whole motherboard is redesigned.

And that's exactly what Intel wants to do again with "Grantsdale", its new chipset design, currently expected to materialise in the fall of 2004.

Some of the changes one will see from the motherboards of today are as follows:

*AGP will be scrapped, in favour of the new PCI Express.
*There will be a new graphics core.
*A NewCard" expansion card format that will support wireless communications.
*The FSB will reach 800MHz!
*May NOT SUPPORT DDR266 RAM!!! But will support 4 DIMM slots.
*Regular PCI as legacy, as ISA was. Perhaps the odd slot included on some boards, but ultimately it will be phased out.
*A version of PCI Express will also be used as a new "HubLink" bus conecting the various components in the chipset.
*Grantsdale will also include four serial ATA ports, as well as a single channel of ATA-100.
*Almost certainly have at least eight USB 2.0 ports.

And, of course, much, much more! Read here for more.

UPDATE: Surprise, surprise, there is a new processor design as well, which does away with pins entirely! Apparently the new processors will be much easier to fit. Here's a picture.