Via's KT-333 saga takes extra twist

But that didn't prevent us hearing about yet another development on Via's KT-333 board - the one that's being launched on the 20th of February as the KT-333A.

The KT-333 has a STR bug and so in addition to the KT-333A we learn that Via has told its motherboard customers there will also be a revision of the board called the KT-333CE.

We don't know what the CE stands for, and suspect that maybe even Via doesn't...

But as there are some tens of thousands of KT-333 boards out there, there's the need for a revision that fixes the problem in those boards.

With us so far? Well, according to mobo makers in Taiwan we spoke to yesterday morning , Via seems to be reacting to press reports. Luckily, because it's Chinese New Year, the powers in Old Taipei may never see this and so perhaps the KT-333, the KT-333A and the KT-333CE will be the end of this saga.

But we also hear that Via has managed to get some considerable performance boosts out of the KT-333A rev, and that's provoked more interest in the release of the chipset than before.

The problem remains, however, that while there is memory for sale labelled 333, all that glitters is not gold in the double data rate (DDR) business.

Limited samples of DDR-333 memory are being sold by Vram, a Kingston Technology division, but so far these are certified only for SIS motherboards, and not for Via boards, we understand.

The modules Vram is selling use memory manufactured by Nanya which, sheerly by coincidence here, is also a sister company of Via, just like HTC - which makes Compaq Ipaqs, and FIC, famous for attempting to lead Mike Magee very astray in The Zone.... µ