A month old, too!
http://www.abit.com.tw/english/press/2000/press90.htm
Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C. June 1st 2000?Continuing the support for the Athlon platform, ABIT has released the KT7 Slot A board. This board is designed to support AMD-K7 Athlon and Duron Socket A 200MHz FSB socketed processors using the VIA KT133 chipset. It also supports all normal industry standard functions for motherboards such as Advanced Configuration and Power Management Interface (ACPI). AGP 2X/4X and 100/133MHz SDRAM Memory Bus Settings. The KT7 uses three 168-pin DIMM sockets supporting PC100/PC133 SDRAM modules.
SoftMenu? III
While you might find some of the features you want in some Athlon boards, only ABIT has Soft Menu?. And now, only to be found on ABIT?s Athlon series (including KT7), there is the newly designed SoftMenu? III for the AMD processors. The KT7?s SoftMenu? III has some special added features and functions that will allow the maximum performance and enhancement tweaks specifically for Athlon based CPUs, like FSB settings from 100MHz to 183MHz in increments of 1, (84 settings). In addition to SoftMenuTM Technology the System BIOS features and supports Award Plug and Play BIOS, Write-Protect Anti-Virus function by AWARD BIOS and is of course Year 2000 Compliant.
Multi I/O Functions
The KT7 has on board Bus Master IDE Ports supporting UDMA 33/66 as well as 6 PCI slots and 1 ISA slot for maximum upgradability, most other boards only have 5 PCI, but ABIT has added an extra PCI slot making the KT7 the most expandable and upgradeable board in its class. In addition to the normal serial and parallel ports the KT7 has 2 USB ports PLUS an extra header for 2 extra USB channels.
ABIT KT7 Special Features:
DRAM Clock: Host Clock plus PCI clock (ex. Host Clock 100MHz, DRAM 133MHz)
6 PCI (Including 6 master signals with added IC)
AGP 4X (Up to 1GB/Sec Transfer rate)
USB (EXTRA USB Header for 2 extra USB channels)
About ABIT
ABIT Computer Corporation designs, and sells a complete family of award-winning computer components that support industry-leading technology and provide superior quality and performance for system integration of computers supporting a broad range of PC applications, such as for e-commerce, e-business, entertainment and education. Corporate headquarters are located in Taiwan. For more information visit the Company's web site at http://www.abit.com.tw
Note: All brand names and trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
Specifications and information contained in this press release are subject to change without notice.
Firstly, it looks to me as if signal timing may be more critical on the KT-133 chipset than on the KX-133, as the KT-7 only features three DIMM sockets, opposed to the KA7's four.
Given the problems that some people had with getting certain types of memory to work on the KA7, the six-chip memory filter could just have been abandoned as simply being to problematic.
Then again, it could just be a cost cutting exercise as they don't have to use pricey buffer/filter chips if they remove the forth slot.
I'm also rather disappointed by the lack of multiplier adjustment. It may be that the adjustment of the multiplier is just not be possible on the production Durons/Thunderbirds, as it seems very unlike ABIT to not include such a saleable overclocking feature. Its possible that they just didn't mention it (I hope), but it may be that AMD is pressuring Mobo manufacturers not to include the facility to change the clock multiplier.
Evidence for:
ASUS have dropped the DIP switches from their A7V.
ABIT haven't included it.
AMD had been a victim of remarking on the Athlon.
Evidence against:
Remarking is only a problem if the remarker can affect the default soft-detected speed of the chip.
Overclocking isn't taking any real cash away from AMD. We're a very small demographic, and very few of us would actually buy a 1Ghz chip if we couldn't overclock our 750 to that level.
Oh, and it's got 6 PCI slots and no AMR slot, so thats nice.
Any other opinions/observations?
http://www.abit.com.tw/english/press/2000/press90.htm
Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C. June 1st 2000?Continuing the support for the Athlon platform, ABIT has released the KT7 Slot A board. This board is designed to support AMD-K7 Athlon and Duron Socket A 200MHz FSB socketed processors using the VIA KT133 chipset. It also supports all normal industry standard functions for motherboards such as Advanced Configuration and Power Management Interface (ACPI). AGP 2X/4X and 100/133MHz SDRAM Memory Bus Settings. The KT7 uses three 168-pin DIMM sockets supporting PC100/PC133 SDRAM modules.
SoftMenu? III
While you might find some of the features you want in some Athlon boards, only ABIT has Soft Menu?. And now, only to be found on ABIT?s Athlon series (including KT7), there is the newly designed SoftMenu? III for the AMD processors. The KT7?s SoftMenu? III has some special added features and functions that will allow the maximum performance and enhancement tweaks specifically for Athlon based CPUs, like FSB settings from 100MHz to 183MHz in increments of 1, (84 settings). In addition to SoftMenuTM Technology the System BIOS features and supports Award Plug and Play BIOS, Write-Protect Anti-Virus function by AWARD BIOS and is of course Year 2000 Compliant.
Multi I/O Functions
The KT7 has on board Bus Master IDE Ports supporting UDMA 33/66 as well as 6 PCI slots and 1 ISA slot for maximum upgradability, most other boards only have 5 PCI, but ABIT has added an extra PCI slot making the KT7 the most expandable and upgradeable board in its class. In addition to the normal serial and parallel ports the KT7 has 2 USB ports PLUS an extra header for 2 extra USB channels.
ABIT KT7 Special Features:
DRAM Clock: Host Clock plus PCI clock (ex. Host Clock 100MHz, DRAM 133MHz)
6 PCI (Including 6 master signals with added IC)
AGP 4X (Up to 1GB/Sec Transfer rate)
USB (EXTRA USB Header for 2 extra USB channels)
About ABIT
ABIT Computer Corporation designs, and sells a complete family of award-winning computer components that support industry-leading technology and provide superior quality and performance for system integration of computers supporting a broad range of PC applications, such as for e-commerce, e-business, entertainment and education. Corporate headquarters are located in Taiwan. For more information visit the Company's web site at http://www.abit.com.tw
Note: All brand names and trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
Specifications and information contained in this press release are subject to change without notice.
Firstly, it looks to me as if signal timing may be more critical on the KT-133 chipset than on the KX-133, as the KT-7 only features three DIMM sockets, opposed to the KA7's four.
Given the problems that some people had with getting certain types of memory to work on the KA7, the six-chip memory filter could just have been abandoned as simply being to problematic.
Then again, it could just be a cost cutting exercise as they don't have to use pricey buffer/filter chips if they remove the forth slot.
I'm also rather disappointed by the lack of multiplier adjustment. It may be that the adjustment of the multiplier is just not be possible on the production Durons/Thunderbirds, as it seems very unlike ABIT to not include such a saleable overclocking feature. Its possible that they just didn't mention it (I hope), but it may be that AMD is pressuring Mobo manufacturers not to include the facility to change the clock multiplier.
Evidence for:
ASUS have dropped the DIP switches from their A7V.
ABIT haven't included it.
AMD had been a victim of remarking on the Athlon.
Evidence against:
Remarking is only a problem if the remarker can affect the default soft-detected speed of the chip.
Overclocking isn't taking any real cash away from AMD. We're a very small demographic, and very few of us would actually buy a 1Ghz chip if we couldn't overclock our 750 to that level.
Oh, and it's got 6 PCI slots and no AMR slot, so thats nice.
Any other opinions/observations?
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