VIA Hardware website has confirmed the talks about Intel BX chipset?s entire compatibility with Intel?s 0.13-micron CPUs based on the Tualatin core. The same thing is true for the mobile version of this chipset which is to be used with Mobile Pentium III (Tualatin) until Intel 830M (Almador) appears.
It doesn?t mean, however, that Pentium III (Tualatin) CPUs will be safely used on the older mainboards with the BX chipset: they don?t provide the necessary CPU voltage, and there have been no adapters with built-in power supply modifier for quite long now.
Now let us sum it all up:
The good old BX chipset supports Tualatin.
The chipsets from i815 series, which came out two years later than the BX, don?t.
This year i815 chipsets with B stepping came into being; they do support Tualatin.
We conclude that the i815 chipsets were deliberately deprived of Tualatin compatibility. Why? The reasons are quite understandable:
Intel needs to sell both processors and chipsets. The mainboard manufacturers strive to have the highest sales possible. VIA is also trying to sell as many chipsets as it can, so it has fallen in with Intel?s idea eagerly. Now it offers chipsets with Tualatin (Pro133T, Pro266T) support, though it could?ve implemented this support since the very first versions of Pro133 and Pro266. SiS is currently busy selling out its 635T and 633T chipsets and has nothing against it either. Indeed, who?d object to driving extra profits? We guess, none of the manufacturers would. From this point of view the AMD platform looks a bit better, as AMD doesn?t address itself selling chipsets. But this party is not that perfect as well.
A good example are KT133 and KT133A chipsets being almost 100% twins (though the first of them works at under-115MHz frequencies and the other one endures 160MHz and even more). Well, in the nearest future no pseudo-updates on this platform are expected.
Of course, business is a wicked game with no sentiments whatsoever, but such tricks as these pseudo-updated chipsets for new processors do embarrass the users.
It doesn?t mean, however, that Pentium III (Tualatin) CPUs will be safely used on the older mainboards with the BX chipset: they don?t provide the necessary CPU voltage, and there have been no adapters with built-in power supply modifier for quite long now.
Now let us sum it all up:
The good old BX chipset supports Tualatin.
The chipsets from i815 series, which came out two years later than the BX, don?t.
This year i815 chipsets with B stepping came into being; they do support Tualatin.
We conclude that the i815 chipsets were deliberately deprived of Tualatin compatibility. Why? The reasons are quite understandable:
Intel needs to sell both processors and chipsets. The mainboard manufacturers strive to have the highest sales possible. VIA is also trying to sell as many chipsets as it can, so it has fallen in with Intel?s idea eagerly. Now it offers chipsets with Tualatin (Pro133T, Pro266T) support, though it could?ve implemented this support since the very first versions of Pro133 and Pro266. SiS is currently busy selling out its 635T and 633T chipsets and has nothing against it either. Indeed, who?d object to driving extra profits? We guess, none of the manufacturers would. From this point of view the AMD platform looks a bit better, as AMD doesn?t address itself selling chipsets. But this party is not that perfect as well.
A good example are KT133 and KT133A chipsets being almost 100% twins (though the first of them works at under-115MHz frequencies and the other one endures 160MHz and even more). Well, in the nearest future no pseudo-updates on this platform are expected.
Of course, business is a wicked game with no sentiments whatsoever, but such tricks as these pseudo-updated chipsets for new processors do embarrass the users.
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