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VIA Releases VIA Apollo P4X266A Chipset

NFS4

NFS4

No Lifer
For Immediate Release

VIA Releases VIA Apollo P4X266A Chipset with Performance Driven Design

Available immediately from VIA Platform Solutions Division and VIA mainboard
partners

Taipei, Taiwan, 20 November 2001 - VIA Technologies, Inc., a leading
innovator and developer of core logic chipsets, microprocessors, and
multimedia and communications chips, today released the new VIA Apollo
P4X266A chipset, featuring Performance Driven Design in an innovative V-MAP
compatible solution. The VIA Apollo P4X266A builds upon the proven
performance and features of the ground breaking VIA Apollo P4X266 chipset by
delivering even greater memory throughput, and can be combined with the new
VIA VT8233A South Bridge featuring support for Ultra ATA/133.

"The VIA Apollo P4X266A pushes the performance envelope for Intel* Pentium*
4 processor based systems," commented Richard Brown, Director of Marketing
for VIA Technologies, Inc. "The launch of this product further reinforces
VIA's leadership position in developing leading edge chipset solutions that
fully harness the unrivaled performance and stability of DDR266 SDRAM."

VIA Apollo P4X266A Chipset
The VIA Apollo P4X266A is an evolutionary design that improves on the
current VIA Apollo P4X266 chipset, and sports the world's fastest DDR memory
controller courtesy of Performance Driven Design. With its 400MHz Front
Side Bus, the VIA Apollo P4X266A supports a full range of Intel* Pentium* 4
processors up to and beyond 2GHz. It is also fully compatible with both the
478-pin and 423-pin versions of the Intel* Pentium* 4 processor.

As part of the VIA Modular Architecture Platform (V-MAP), the VIA Apollo
P4X266A is fully compatible with existing mainboards based on the VIA Apollo
P4X266 or VIA ProSavageDDR P4M266 chipsets, ensuring seamless transitions to
new higher performance product designs. The VIA Apollo P4X266A is also
capable of interfacing with three unique pin-compatible South Bridges,
including the new VIA VT8233A with Ultra ATA/133 support. This allows
mainboard manufacturers, System Integrators, and OEMs to target vastly
different markets with a single unified motherboard design.

VIA Apollo P4X266A Pricing and Availability
The VIA Apollo P4X266A chipset is manufactured at TSMC in a .22 micron, 3
metal layer process, and is priced at $25 in OEM quantities. The VIA Apollo
P4X266A is widely available from both the VIA Platform Solutions Division
and the Company's mainboard partners. A photo and product backgrounder is
available upon request. Please contact VIA Technologies, Inc. for more
information or visit the website at:
<http://www.via.com.tw/en/products/apollo/P4X266a.jsp>


About VIA Technologies, Inc.
VIA Technologies, Inc. is a leading innovator and developer of PC core logic
chipsets, microprocessors, and multimedia and communications chips. VIA
delivers value to the PC industry by designing, marketing, and selling
high-performance VIA Apollo core logic chipsets for the full range of PC
platforms, and cost-effective VIA C3(tm) processors for Value PCs and
Internet Appliances, as well as developing complete solutions for the PC
platform through its VPSD Business Unit. Its customers include the world's
top OEMs, mainboard manufacturers, and system integrators. VIA is
headquartered in Taipei, Taiwan, at the center of the Greater China
high-tech manufacturing engine, and has branch offices in the US, China and
Europe. The company is listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TSE2388), and
achieved annual revenues of nearly US$1 billion in 2000. Additional
information can be found at www.via.com.tw.
 

The SiS 645/961 chipset supports DDR333.

"The launch of this product further reinforces
VIA's leadership position in developing leading edge chipset solutions that
fully harness the unrivaled performance and stability of DDR266 SDRAM."

Oh really. So what makes this chipset any better? Is it really the fastest with DDR266?
 
Well hopefully sooner or latter manufacturers will start shipping them, currently only about 3 are available.

<rant mode on> Hopefully there will be some decent socket 423 boards available as well as 478 <rant mode off>
 
Didnt do as much as the KT 266 revision (no surprises). Not bad, but i'd rather wait and see what the 645 retail boards can do. I didn't like those 'minor incompatibilty' errors either
 
I have the Shuttle AV40 (P4X266) and consider it the best value of its class when I purchased it two months ago. It is everything that I expect it to be and more.

But I see no future in the VIA chipset until they can remove the legal cloud over its head. From Anand's Comdex report, major MB maker just will not touch it.
 
If I was going P4 with DDR. I'd DEFINATELY wait for the i845 DDR mobos to come out. That's supposed to be damn fast (faster than the P4X266 if I remember correctly). Even if it turns out to be a little slower than the P4X266A, I'd go Intel and pay more for it for the stability.

 
For the most part, I like VIA chipsets, but releasing chipset, and following it with an imediate revision is dirty. I realize that they have been doing this since the KT133 days (Maybe before?), but this is getting absurd. If VIA wants to continue to function in the market, they are going to have to break this habit. I'm hoping that nvidia entering the chipset market raises the bar on quality and forces other company's to take note and follow.. *Disclaimer** The last comment assumes that 1) We wont see a revision to the nForce and 2) the nforce lives up to what early reviews seem to indicate.

CH2
 
I really think that P4X266A is out of the picture also. SiS 645 with DDR333 is a phenomenal performer, beating 850. I personally, am going to have to wait and see about 845-B. I personally, despite how great 845 is, if SiS 645 with DDR333 is indeed still faster than 845-B , I would be inclined to go for SiS 645 because it will be cheaper than 845-B and be faster. We'll see. I will look forward to Anand's review of 845-B
 


<< but releasing chipset, and following it with an imediate revision is dirty. I realize that they have been doing this since the KT133 days (Maybe before?), b >>



Nvidia did the samething with the GF line and no one complained then....As soon as VIA or AMD does something similar its a problem.
 
I notice from Athlon4All's review link that the new Shuttle board moves the floppy to a better location - the Shuttle AV40 and AV40R (P4X266) boards had it right next to the ISA slot so you had to run it behind the board - which was fine unless you have a full-tower case a standard-length floppy cable.

I also notice in Athlon4all's review link that they they overclocked the memory (by overriding the SPD and entering in max settings) and then failed to get one of the benchmarks (Q3 fast) to complete, and yet they still gave the board an ok score for stability (13/20). What is it with reviewers nowadays? If you are trying to review boards, you shouldn't be overclocking anything - or if you are you should be very clear about it and then not bother with a stability score based on the overclocked results. And if the board shows "instability in Windows XP" and "won't run the Quake 3 benchmark on fastest" then you should flunk it for stability. Concluding the stability of the board from this review is pointless (although thanks for the link nonetheless, Athlon) - I don't know if the board is just unstable or if it's their memory settings that were the problem.

As far as the "A" revision and people complaining - all chipset vendors do this. In fact practically every hardware and semiconductor vendor that I can think of, from CPUs, to memory, HD's, you name it - everyone issues revisions of their product. Via just happens to be obvious about it by marketing it as a new product. I'm not sure how I feel about this, but personally I think it's better than other vendors who release a new version with new features and higher performance but don't market it as such and then you have to hunt around all over calling people to see if they carrying model number "xyz". For example, the newest revision of RDRAM cools the part substantially (you can actually touch the RIMMs while they are running and not lose skin!), and are about 10% faster. Find me one of this parts, anyone. I certainly couldn't. No one had the faintest clue what I was talking about when I phoned around. But I know they exist, I've seen several at work. If it was PC800A, I would have a much easier time, but instead I have to call around and ask people to look at the memory chips... which most aren't even willing to do.
 


<< Nvidia did the samething with the GF line and no one complained then....As soon as VIA or AMD does something similar its a problem. >>



1st of all, who said anything about AMD? I said VIA, & it's not a case of "As soon as", it's a case of "repetedly". You can just about bet that when/if we see a kt333 chipset, we will see a kt333a 2 to 3 months later. What's the parallel your trying to draw with Nvidia's GeForce? The GF3 release and the Ti series? If so, that's weak.. the TI series did not involve any change in silcon and is no different than AMD releasing a faster Athlon. The TI serves no other purpose than to diversify the the GF3 lineup. Comparitively, look at the KT266 to the KT266a.. USB problems fixed, DDR performance now where it should be, Data prefetch added. I'm not knocking VIA's chipsets.. I've been using them exclusively since the KX133.. My beef with VIA comes from them releasing a 1/2 baked product on the public, only to release the true finished/polished product a few months later. I guess what I'm trying to say is they need to learn to leave the bread in the oven a little bit longer.. or hire a new chef.
 


<< For the most part, I like VIA chipsets, but releasing chipset, and following it with an imediate revision is dirty. I realize that they have been doing this since the KT133 days (Maybe before?), but this is getting absurd. If VIA wants to continue to function in the market, they are going to have to break this habit. I'm hoping that nvidia entering the chipset market raises the bar on quality and forces other company's to take note and follow.. *Disclaimer** The last comment assumes that 1) We wont see a revision to the nForce and 2) the nforce lives up to what early reviews seem to indicate.

CH2 >>


I agree with you, VIA's chipset releases are getting old quite fast and I do hope nForce will set the new standard on chipset releases, being very few of them at that. How many has VIA come out with for the Athlon? KX133, KT133, KT133A, KT266, KT266A, I know I'm missing one or two more.
 
There is rumor that the legal battle may be settled from x-bit.

The Shuttle AV-40 is one of the most stable board that I have had. I overclocked to 147 MHz memory bus and set the DDR timing to the most agressive ones and still can run Prime95 rock stable indefinitely.

Compared to recently Asus board, the AV-40 is good in BIOS feature. But it lacks refinement in implementation of hardware. Example:

1. It cannot recover automatically when you push the OC too far and it will not post. It requires a BIOS reset.
2. It does not come with any hardware monitor software under windows.

 

<<"I really think that P4X266A is out of the picture also. SiS 645 with DDR333 is a phenomenal performer, beating 850. I personally, am going to have to wait and see about 845-B. I personally, despite how great 845 is, if SiS 645 with DDR333 is indeed still faster than 845-B , I would be inclined to go for SiS 645 because it will be cheaper than 845-B and be faster. We'll see. I will look forward to Anand's review of 845-B">>
 
*Disclaimer** The last comment assumes that 1) We wont see a revision to the nForce and 2) the nforce lives up to what early reviews seem to indicate.

Nvidia's official line on nForce is that a revision of nForce will be released next spring (which could mean March, April, May timeframe). This revision will add DDR333 support, among other things.

I don't personally believe it's a bad thing to release revisions of chipsets, however VIA shouldn't have released the regular P4X266 chipsets to motherboard manufacturers if they knew they could release the "A" version of it only 2-3 months later.
 
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