This article originally appeared on Hardware Central.

The desktop PC has undergone plenty of architectural changes and enhancements over the last few years, but in the immortal words of BTO, you ain't seen nothing yet. 2004 will be a year of monumental platform change, with Intel leading the charge by revamping platform architecture virtually from top to bottom. AMD got a bit of a head start with its AMD64 x86 extensions in 2003, but Intel is looking to catch up quick with a rapid-fire introduction of new technologies and features.

The changes will begin with the "Grantsdale" mainstream and "Alderwood" performance chipsets -- successors to today's i865 and i875 series, respectively, which will introduce revolutionary technologies such as LGA775, DDR-2, and PCI Express.

LGA775 Turns Down the Heat

The processor is the base of Intel's desktop strategy, so it's appropriate that Alderwood/Grantsdale will introduce an entirely new LGA775 or "Socket T" CPU package for 3.6GHz and faster chips, making today's various Pentium 4/3.4 models the last of the Socket 478 line. LGA stands for Land Grid Array -- a pinless, higher-end format that allows a direct electrical link to pins on the motherboard socket, as well as offering a lower-cost model than previous mPGA or FCPGA packages.

The main goal is to supply upcoming processors with needed power, while better controlling their increased heat output. The increased pin count (or rather, contact count), from 478 to 775, is useful both in supplying higher power requirements and supporting new features. The much-publicized thermal requirements of Intel's 90-nanometer P4 "Prescott" have been met with a brand-new new cooling design and mounting mechanism.

Intel will be supporting both the Prescott and upcoming "Tejas" cores using the Socket T format, while filtering down lower-speed Socket T models to transition the market to the new platform throughout 2004 and into 2005.

DDR-2 and PCI Express

The two main performance features of the new platforms will be support for DDR-2 memory and the PCI Express bus. Grantsdale and Alderwood will also match the current i865PE and i875P in terms of memory architecture, i.e., a dual-channel memory controller for up to DDR-2/533 speeds. We've kicked around the DDR-2 can a few times, and while the "speed ratings" continue to look impressive, we're still undecided as to what kind of real-world performance advantage the new memory might deliver over today's high-end DDR. Given today's 800MHz-bus Pentium 4 processor, a dual-DDR-2/533 setup will exceed the bandwidth requirements of the CPU, so may not bring as big a payoff as anticipated.

Questions about performance, and about how higher DDR-2 latencies will come into play, will be answered when hardware becomes available, but pricing is a real concern. DDR-2 was really not intended as a higher-cost technology, but more as a way to produce competitive memory at lower prices. Current projections, however, put DDR-2 at a hefty premium over similar DDR components. Let's hope that, by the time Intel's new chipsets are ready for prime time, DDR-2 prices have settled down.

PCI Express is an easier technology to embrace, as it provides a wider bus interface and supplies higher voltage, both of which will come in handy with gaming-class graphics cards. The anticipated PCI Express 16X implementation will raise overall bandwidth to 8GB/sec -- but as with AGP 8X before it, you shouldn't expect a giant leap forward in real performance. Still, other than the accelerated obsolescence of current AGP cards, there's virtually no downside, and both Nvidia and ATI are on board with a wide range of PCI Express-ready products. Operating-system support is still an open question, as Windows "Longhorn" has been rumored to be the true home of PCI Express, but it's not due until 2006 at the earliest.

The X Factors

Last month's Intel Developer Forum (IDF) also saw the chip giant touting a new form factor called BTX (Balanced Technology eXtended), which redesigns the existing ATX layout to allow better cooling and internal efficiencies in an overall smaller footprint.

It's really not that much of a departure from today's ATX designs, but is fully standardized and more refined, and should allow easier configuration in standard tower and desktop as well as small-form-factor designs, the latter quite similar to VIA's, Shuttle's, and other current mini-PC systems. BTX will be the default form factor for the new Intel chipsets, but ATX is still supported.

Much bigger news from IDF was the announcement of 64-bit extensions to the x86 architecture in upcoming members of the Xeon server and workstation CPU family -- in other words, an AMD64-style alternative to Intel's enterprise 64-bit Itanium (IA-64) solution.

Since the new Xeons are based on Prescott technology (and since Prescott is rumored to have the 64-bit extensions already built in, if disabled), the rollout of a new platform, memory type, and CPU package might also be an opportune time to release a 64-bit desktop competitor to the Athlon 64. Thanks to AMD's initiative, drivers, games, and applications are already available or in development, and though Intel would have to bear some taunting about being an AMD copycat, it's not like the company to turn its back on a potentially rich market.

New Technology, Similar Performance?

The arrival of the Alderwood and Grantsdale platforms will drop a lot of new gear into end users' laps, and really push forward the overall design and feature set of the desktop PC. These are welcome advances, but we can't help wondering how much they'll truly improve performance.