IWILL has just announced the first ever mainboard based on the SiS748 core-logic. The mainboard is a cost-effective solution for the upcoming Athlon XP CPUs with 400MHz EV-6 bus. In addition, IWILL K7S3 provides all the convenient input/output features as well as trendy PC3200 support.

Take a look on the technical specifications of the novelty:

• Supports all Socket A Athlon XP/Athlon/Duron processors with 200/266/333/400MHz PSB, including Barton CPUs;
• SiS748 North Bridge and SiS963L South Bridge;
• 3 DIMM slots for up to 3GB of PC1600, PC2100, PC2700 or PC3200 DDR SDRAM;
• 5 PCI and 1 AGP 8x slot;
• 2-channel integrated ATA-33/66/100/133 controller;
• 10/100Mb/s Ethernet Adapter (for K7S3-L only);
• 6 USB 2.0 ports;
• Integrated AC`97 6-channel audio solution;
• Overclocking and tuning functions;
• ATX Form-factor.

At this time there is no information about pricing and availability, but keeping in mind that AMD reportedly launches its Athlon XP CPUs with 400MHz PSB in the first half of May, I would suppose that IWILL K7S3 and K7S3-L will start to emerge shortly.

SiS748 chipset will definitely be more a successful one compared to the whole SiS746-series because it will make its appearance just in time and will probably be a not bad option for customers in budget who build AMD Athlon XP powered systems. Expect SiS748-based mainboards from ECS, ASUS, ASRock and some others to come.