Via warns of hard drive chipset incompatibility

CHIP FIRM VIA issued a note to its customers telling them of problems with chipset support for hard drives using the Serial ATA II standard.

It said that VT8237 and VT8237R chipsets don't provide forward compatibility for S-ATA II, which is important as hard drive makers are beginning to manufacture this type of drive.

But Via is readying the release of VT8237R Plus, which will solve the problem. This means that motherboard makers that use the former chipset should clear their inventory before September.

Hard drive manufacturers position with S-ATA II is as follows, said Via in its note. Western Digital and Samsung are already shipping these devices, while Seagate and Maxtor will start shipping them during this quarter.

If you connect S-ATA II drives to an old Via chipset which includes the VT8237, VT8237R, VT6420 and VT6421L, the devices won't be detected.

Some mobo makers, such as Epox, have already responded to the problem and have warned their customers to seek the support of hard drive vendors. In a letter to its customers, it said that they should also check the specs of other manufacturers' Via based motherboards. µ