X-bit labs

VIA Technologies Preps New Chipsets with HDTV Support.

Category: Chipsets

by Anton Shilov

[ 03/12/2004 | 04:53 PM ]

VIA Technologies announced two new chipsets for Intel Pentium 4 processors with integrated graphics core that supports HDTV output and advanced DVD play capabilities.

The new chipsets from VIA Technologies – VIA PM800 and VIA PM880 – are derivatives of VIA PT800 and PT880 with UniChrome Pro Integrated Graphics Processor (IGP) core. The new core-logic products sport Intel Pentium 4 and Celeron processors with 400MHz, 533MHz and 800MHz Quad Pumped Bus, DDR SDRAM memory and AGP 8x interconnection. The PM880 boasts with higher performance compared to PM800 because of dual-channel memory controller.

In addition to 2D/3D graphics engine, the UniChrome Pro IGP provides Chromotion CE Video Display Engine that supports all HDTV formats, including the latest "Super" HDTV 1080p displays, as well as MPEG-2 decoder. VIA Technologies considers these peculiarities to be important for PCs intended for digital entertainment.

The novelty from VIA sports V-Link to connect the VT8237 I/O hub providing PCI, USB, Parallel ATA, Serial ATA-150 controllers. Additionally, mainboards based on VIA K8M800 may be equipped with VIA’s impressive 5.1 or 7.1 audio solutions as well as VIA’s Gigabit Ethernet chips.

The VIA PM800 and PM 880 IGP chipsets are available now, and mainboards based on them are expected to be available in Q2 2004.