Having reached an agreement with Intel about VIA solutions for Pentium 4 processors, VIA changed the names for chipsets supporting this platform. Now they decided to undertake the same changes regarding the upcoming AMD Athlon 64 platform. The new company roadmap reveals the new names for the already familiar products.

According to a pretty credible document, which we managed to get hold of, K8T400M will now be called K8T800; K8M400 will be renamed into K8M800; and the promising K8 PCIE supporting PCI Express will be known as K8T890. Let me remind you of the major features of the above mentioned chipsets, which are to come out in the nearest future:

• K8T800. Supports Athlon 64 and Opteron processors, AGP 4x/8x port, 8x V-Link. The chipset is in massproduction right now.
• K8M800. This chipset is a K8T800 version with integrated graphics core. It will be pin compatible with the discrete K8T800 and features an Unichrome2 graphics core. This core works at 200MHz frequency, features 2 pixel pipes & 2 texture units, 8MB to 64MB UMA frame buffer, DuoView, Full MPEG2 decoder, External TV-out & DVI monitor interface. The chipset is due in Q3 2003.
• K8T890. This chipset for Athlon 64 and Opteron processors supporting PCI Express bus. It will also use Ultra V-Link bus to connect with more up-to-date South Bridges. The first samples should be available by the end of the year, and the mass production is scheduled for 2004.