Via completely revamps Pentium 4 chipset range

A WEEK AFTER Intel and Via signed an agreement to license its new technology, the INQUIRER has seen roadmaps from the Taiwanese firm that show it will soon completely re-vamp its Pentium 4 chipset family.

The changes include not only name but feature changes too.

But let's get the name changes out of the way first. The PT 400 will become the PT 800, the PT 600 will become the PT 880, the PT800 will morph into the PT890 while PM400T transmogrifies into the PM 800.

Furthermore, Via has also added PCi-Express to its up and coming Pentium 4 PT890 chipset, a shape of things to come.

As the names imply, support for the 800MHz front side bus has been added to these chips, as well as support for DDR 400 to JEDEC compliant specifications.

The PT 880 chipset will include 800MHz FSB support, support for dual DDR 400 64-bit channels, and also support for dual channel QBM 533 with a claimed 8.5GB/s bandwidth. This chipset will support the usual collection of other IO and include support for Serial ATA (S-ATA).

The QBM technology has two DDR devices with the second device clock delayed by 90 degrees, with a QBM switch which latches alternating data bits and which generates 4 bits per cycle rather than two bits per cycle.

Via will claim this gives the highest bandwidth, comparing the 200MHz front side bus at 6400MB/sec to a 133MHz times four on two channels giving 8533Mb/sec. The PM 880 is a similar beast to this but with integrated UniChrome GFX, and samples in the third quarter.

The PT890 has support for the 800MHz FSB, and will also support dual 64-bit memory channels for DDR 1 at 266, 333 and 400, and for DDR 2 at 400, 533, and 666MHz. Again, the PM 890 has integrated UniChrome GFX but introduces External PCI Express capabilities and will sample in the first quarter of next year. µ

See Also
Via's support for PCI Express and Athlon 64