ASUSTeK Computer, the world’s largest mainboard maker, is said to unveil a new mainboard based on unknown VIA P4X533 chipset. The novelty will be mostly intended for 478-pin Intel Prescott processors with 533MHz Quad Pumped Bus, the source claims. 

ASUS P4V8X-X mainboard continues ASUSTeK’s X-series products for cost-minded customers. The novelty can support Intel Pentium 4 and Celeron processors for Socket 478 with 400, 533 or 800MHz Quad Pumped Bus and is ready to work with Intel chips made using 90nm technology. However, with only those CPUs that use 533MHz bus – the upcoming Prescott Celeron processors as well as a special edition of Pentium 4 processor 2.80GHz that sports SSE3 – the main peculiarity of Prescott – but does not bring Hyper-Threading technology and utilizes 533MHz QPB instead of 800MHz PSB.

It is unclear which VIA chipset the company mounts on the new mainboard that is to be announced at a later date. A Chinese report claims that the heart of P4V8X-X is VIA P4X533 – a mysterious core-logic that VIA Technology has never announced. Specifications of the product more resemble that of PT800 – up to 800MHz PSB support, single-channel memory controller for up to PC3200 speed, AGP 8x as well as compatibility with VIA VT8237 controller. The P4X400, a likely predecessor of the P4X533, cannot boast with 800MHz bus, AGP8x and ability to connect VIA VT8237 I/O controller.

The P4V8X mainboard itself is a typical cost-effective Socket 478 solution in ATX form-factor. It brings 3DIMM slots for up to 3GB of memory, the amount of memory the majority of end-users will never install on such platform, 5 PCI slots, AGP 8x slot, 2 Serial ATA-150 ports with RAID, 2-channel Parallel ATA-33/66/100, 10/100Mb/s Ethernet controller, USB 2.0 connectivity, 6-channel audio with S/PDIF as well as some other necessary features.

Pricing and availability of the newcomer were not touched upon. ASUS and VIA officials did not comment on the story.