SiS Unveils First Ever Socket A Chipset with 400MHz FSB Support

by Anton Shilov
03/12/2003 | 11:28 AM

Well, maybe VIA has the largest share of AMD-supporting platforms market, while NVIDIA supplies the fastest core-logic sets for the Athlon XP processors, today they were both surpassed by SiS, who was not really active on the Socket A front last year. Silicon Integrated Systems Corporation unveiled today its latest SiS748 core-logic for AMD Athlon processors that officially supports 400MHz EV-6FSB.

The SiS748 core-logic is the first core-logic in the world that can support so fast system bus for AMD Athlon-series of processors. Probably SiS748 is also one of the most feature-rich Socket A platforms, just take a look at its specifications:

• Supports all Socket A Athlon XP/Athlon/Duron processors with 200, 266, 333 and 400MHz EV-6 system bus;
• SiS748 North Bridge can be accompanied by SiS963L I/O Controller;
• Rather mysterious HyperStreaming technology support;
• SiS MuTIOL 1G architecture to connect North and South Bridges;
• Up to 3GB of PC2100, PC2700 or PC3200 (DDR400) DDR SDRAM;
• AGP 8x slot;

Here are the specs of SiS963L South Bridge:

• 6 PCI slots;
• 6 USB 2.0 ports;
• 2-channel integrated ATA-33/66/100/133 controller;
• 10/100Mb/s Ethernet;
• Home PNA 2.0;
• 6-channel audio-solution;
• MC97 Modem;

SiS did not tell when SiS748 core-logic will make its appearance. In case this happens sometime in Summer, it definitely will not boost SiS’ sales much, but if SiS rolls-out its latest chipset in the course of next four to six weeks, it will be a notifiable breakthrough for SiS on the Socket A market. We know that SiS’ chipsets are not really expensive, thus, SiS748 may be a good buy this Spring, when companies like MSI, ASRock or ECS start to sell such mainboards. Who knows, maybe SiS748 is the successor of the famous SiS735, especially in case AMD utilises 200MHz FSB for its Socket A processors later this year?