Gigabit Ethernet and Hardware-Optimized Firewall
Nvidia Corp.'s nForce3 250Gb MCP -- media and communications processor, a.k.a. chipset -- has made a splash in the AMD Athlon 64-based platform market, but the company hasn't forgotten its 32-bit customers. The new nForce2 Ultra 400Gb MCP is a high-performance platform for Athlon XP motherboards and PC systems that includes Nvidia's native Gigabit Ethernet networking, which the company says provides over 200 percent more networking bandwidth while lowering CPU overhead compared to PCI-based Gigabit Ethernet solutions.
The nForce2 Ultra 400Gb also follows its 64-bit brother in incorporating Nvidia Firewall, the industry's first hardware-optimized, ICSA Labs-certified protection against network-level hacking attacks and other common security risks. It shares the integrated SoundStorm audio, real-time Dolby Digital encoding, and FireWire capabilities of the current nForce2 Ultra 400 chipset.