Intel has licensed NVIDIA's SLI technology for its own branded motherboards built with the X58 chipset, formerly codenamed Tylersburg.

AMD/ATI's Crossfire technology has been available on X58 motherboards since the chipset was launched in November. SLI and Crossfire enable the simultaneous use of multiple video cards together for increased graphics performance.

The X58 chipset exclusively supports Core i7 CPUs using DDR3 DRAM and the LGA-1366 socket. It will support future Core i7 and Gulftown Westmere-based chips as well. Core i5 and Westmere-based CPUs will use other chipsets supporting the LGA-1156 socket instead.

So far, the DX58SO Desktop Board, codenamed Smackover, is the only motherboard that Intel makes that uses the X58 chipset. Current owners should be able to enable SLI support through a BIOS update.

X58 chipsets are built on a 130nm process at some of Intel's older fabs. It pairs the X58 I/O Hub northbridge with the ICH10 southbridge. It does not support ECC (Error Correcting Code) DRAM, which corrects single bit memory errors and detects multiple bit errors. This has traditionally been a feature of Intel's enthusiast level chipsets.

Some X58 motherboards built by other manufacturers have already licensed SLI from NVIDIA, which has had working drivers since last year.

All motherboard manufacturers must pay the required hefty fees and submit boards through the certification process at NVIDIA’s Santa Clara Certification Lab. There are unique ‘cookies’ given to each vendor to enable SLI usage. NVIDIA branding and logos must be prominently displayed as a condition of SLI licensing.

Apparently, enabling SLI on the X58 chipset was easy, as it supports a peer-to-peer writing scheme which is almost exactly the same as the PW Short technology that NVIDIA uses with its own NF200 SLI switch chip.

Sales of the Core i7 have been below expectations due to the global economic recession. The high-end enthusiast market that uses Core i7 is the same market that NVIDIA is courting with its SLI products. Motherboards using the Core i7 cost more to produce due to its support for triple memory channels, raising overall platform costs. Core i5 and mainstream Westmere-based products will address this problem by only supporting two memory channels.

Even though it was always considered a low volume product, sales of the Core i7 accounted for less than one percent of Intel's CPU sales in December.