Via's Athlon and Pentium 4 plans

But before we step into that mode, it's time to briefly digress. Ten years back I found myself in Richardson Texas with Mr Jerry Rogers, then the CEO of up-and-coming chip firm Cyrix.

He is the man who uttered the immortal roar: "Who let that man into my building" but we think he was only joking as he proudly walked around the facility showing us the patents Cyrix had - patents which La Intella, in those days a very litigious beast indeed, were unable to challenge in or out of court..

Those patents became part of NatSemi, when it took over Cyrix and now belong to plucky little chipset company Via - which also has a great chunk of S3 (and ex-Exponential patents) in its armoury. So we think that's why Via is so unworried about Intel taking it to the legal cleaners.

That digression is needed because desktop roadmaps seen by the INQUIRER today show that apart from the P4X266 that it introduced earlier this week, it has other plans for the Pentium 4 too.

So to the desktop chipsets - which bear more than a passing resemblance to the mobile chipsets that we discussed in another piece today.

In Q4, Via will introduce the P4X333, which will support, in the North Bridge, DDR 333, ECC, AGP4X/8X, V-Link 533MB/S, QDR - yes QDR, VPX-II and PCI-X and which is estimated to start arriving in Q4.

Then there's the P4M266, details of which have been widely leaked, but which we may as well refresh our brains about, supporting PC-133, DDR 266, ECC, Integrated Savage4 GFX, AGP 4X, V-Link 266MB/S, and which seems to be coming out in several flavours - perhaps a multiprocessing flavour too. Sampling now folks.

Then we have the P4M333, supporting DDR 333 as well, with Zootrope GFX, AGP 4X/8X, V-Link 533MB/S, and which arrives in Q1 next year.

The Athlon/Duron desktop roadmap is interesting too. Multiprocessing versions of the KT266 chipset are on the way, but we will also see the KM266, supporting 200/266MHz, V-Link 266MB/S., and PC-133 and DDR 266.

Perhaps of slightly more interest is the AMD chipset known by the refreshingly uncomplicated moniker K8T333. This has a K8 HT - yes HT bus, AGP 4X/8X, supports DDR266/333, V-Link 533MB/S and will come in Q1 next year.

There's also a ProSavage Athlon-Duron chipset called the KM333, which like the Pentium 4 one supports DDR 333 as well as 266, includes the Zootrope GFX technology (see the notebook story), AGP 4X/8X, V-Link 533MB/S and is expected to glide into landing Q1 and Q2 of next year, probably in single and multiprocessing flavours.

The K8M333 is a little further off and is slated to arrive Q3 of 2002. The information we saw showed this has very little different to the previous desktop processor chipsets we've covered, so we suspect Via is keeping its cards close to its chest here.

On the South Bridge side, the picture is pretty similar to the mobile notebook - with the VT8235 having V-Link 533MB/S, six channel AC97 audio, HSP V.90, MAC with MIII interface, six ports of USB 2.0 - DSL support, and advanced power management.

The reason for all of these similarities is explained by a slide we saw which describes one P4 motherboard with multiple average selling price skews - P4X and P4M266 pin compatible, DDR or SDRAM, and a 2.5 volt core on a four layer mobo.

The P4M266 SMA DDR chipset will have identical North Bridge features to the P4X266, paired with the VT8233 V-Link South Bridge, and use an integrated Savage 4 2D/3D core, which Via thinks will give an optimal and balanced graphics core for 64-bit DDR memory subsystems without display cache. That will give it a 40 per cent 3D performance improvement over a PM-133 SMA system, Via reckons, include integrated motion compensation, support a FB size of eight, 16 and 32MB, and with PM-133 compatible graphics drivers. You can bung in an external AGP 4X graphics card, plus it will be pin compatible with the P4X266.

So the P4M266 can be used as a drop in replacement for the P4X266, and can be end user upgradeable, with the P4X266 targeting the performance mainstream. µ