New chipsets underpin Intel's latest desktop PC platform

Matrix Storage Technology
Intel is introducing its Matrix Storage Technology with this chipset -- strictly speaking, with the ICH6R southbridge chip. This has support for RAID 0/1 on a single two-drive array, as well as other configurations, including two RAID arrays on the four Serial ATA ports. It also includes native command queuing, where the hardware can re-order disk reads and writes to make optimal use of the head position over the disk surface, increasing performance by up to a claimed 74 percent.

DDR2 memory
Memory is faster and more flexible, thanks to DDR2 533MHz parts and a dual-channel memory path that can have the same or different amounts of RAM on each channel. The faster speed is unlikely to affect some classes of application much -- gamers can expect a couple of percent improvement over slower memory, if that -- but is useful for things like video editing and DVD playback.

Outlook
With these chips, Intel is presenting its vision of how high-performance home and office desktop PCs will be configured over the next two to three years. Although none of the technologies introduced will result in major performance improvements by themselves, they will be able to track future processor enhancements without presenting I/O bottlenecks.

Intel has released several motherboards based on the 925 and 915 chipsets; the rest of the industry will follow in due course.
There'll be some lag while the rest of the industry introduces motherboards, graphics cards and other peripherals with drivers to take advantage of the new features, and it will take some time to be sure how the improvements translate into performance increases in real life, but the shape of this sector of the market has now been cast.