by Anton Shilov
10/15/2002 | 07:12 PM
VIA Technology Forum ended last week, however, we can still share some interesting information about VIA and its future chipsets with you. This time I will tell you about the Pentium 4 supporting platforms from the Taipei-based chipset developer.
Later this year VIA Technologies will unveil its VIA P4X600 core-logic. The newcomer was already showcased at VTF, so, it should appear just as scheduled without any delays. The P4X600 is intended for the Pentium 4 processors with 400 or 533MHz Quad Pumped Bus and will feature dual-channel memory controller. I wonder if VIA announces this baby a couple of days before Intel announces its Granite Bay, in order to be able to call it “the first dual-channel DDR SDRAM supporting Pentium 4 chipset”. Keeping in mind VIA’s negative experience with DDR400, the company only declares PC2100 and PC2700 support for their new device. Frankly speaking, dual-channel PC2700 DDR SDRAM delivers about 5.4GB/s of peak system bandwidth what should be enough not only for the current Pentium 4 processors with 533MHz Quad Pumped Bus, but also for the up and coming Pentium 4 “Prescott” CPUs with 667MHz FSB. It is also very natural that VIA P4X600 supports AGP 8x and V-Link 8x, like all the latest core-logic products from the company.<%BANNER[article]%>
In the first quarter 2003 VIA will offer a new version of its integrated chipset for the Pentium 4 and Celeron processors. VIA P4M400 will incorporate the CastleRock (Savage XP) graphics core with one pixel pipeline with two TMUs per each. Besides, the novelty will support PC2100 and PC2700 memory, AGP 8x external port and 8x V-Link interconnection between the North and South Bridges. Although this chipset with integrated graphics seems to be the fastest for the Pentium 4 platform in terms of 3D performance, I seriously doubt that it will become really popular due to the legal dispute with Intel, who does not allow its closest partners (that are the biggest manufacturers of mainboards in the world) to make mainboards for the Pentium 4 CPUs using chipsets from VIA.
Even despite of being not very successful on certain markets, VIA’s devices continue to remain pretty interesting for evaluation. The most interesting product from VIA Technologies for the Pentium 4 platform to be launched in about half a year time will definitely be VIA P4X800 chipset. At the time VIA only declares the support of 400 and 533MHz processors for this novelty, however, considering its timeframe, I think that it definitely has to have 667MHz Quad Pumped Bus support as well. The most important feature of the P4X800 is DDR-II and Quad Band Memory (QBM) support, according to VIA’s official roadmap.
I will remind you what QBM memory actually is. Quad Band DRAM allows to double the memory sub-system bandwidth using the widely-spread DDR SDRAM. Modules, that correspond to QBM standard make use of ordinary memory chips mentioned above, however, thanks to using an additional PLL, half of the chips work at 90 degrees displaced frequency, hence, data becomes available almost two times more frequently compared to ordinary modules. Basically, such way of functioning resembles a 128-bit memory module with a pair of 64-bit channels that switch, in turns, one over another. The linear peak bandwidth of such memory system can be up to 4.2GB/s when using ordinary 266MHz memory chips (PC2100). Moreover, since QBM utilises the same 184-pin design of modules, mainboards to support QBM will allow to install ordinary DDR SDRAM as well. In fact, I had several doubts that this type of memory will become spread widely due to VIA’s efforts and even posted a news-story with my concerns here.
It seems that VIA will ask manufacturers of mainboards to integrate both 184-pin memory slots for DDR-I and 240-pins on the mainboards so that the customers were able to install either DDR-I with or without QBM support or DDR-II with or without QBM support. These are only my assumptions based on the VIA’s claiming, so, do not take them like something already decided.
Besides the DDR-II, the QBM and the 667MHz Quad Pumped Bus, the P4X800 will feature AGP 8x and the new version of interconnection between the North Bridge and I/O controller: the Ultra V-Link. It is rather strange, but by the time VIA will bring its P4X800 to the market, they will have no Ultra V-Link supporting South Bridges at all, according to the official documents. As it is stated, in the first quarter of 2003, VIA will start to sample its VT8237 I/O controller that will support 2 Serial ATA-150 ports, 2 Parallel ATA-33/66/100/133 ports, RAID, 8 USB 2.0 ports, VIA MAC with MII interface, 6-channel audio, Home PNA or 10/100Mbit Ethernet with external chips and so on. The novelty will only provide V-Link 8x interface, according to VIA.
One good thing I have to tell about VIA is that all their chipsets intended for the Pentium 4 processors also support SMP. It means that they have integrated means of commutation between the processors, as a result, there is a very high probability that all Pentium 4 chipsets from VIA support the HyperThreading technology as well. Moreover, a VIA representative admitted this unofficially a number of weeks ago.
Stay tuned and I will tell you even more interesting facts in regards AMD platform.