by Anna Filatova
05/02/2003 | 05:45 AM
Eden platforms offered by VIA for small quiet PCs, tablets and web-terminals can't boast high performance nowadays. However, due to a special CLE266 core logic they are very functional. These platforms support DDR200/DDR266 SDRAM, are equipped with UniChrome graphics core and work with VIA C3 processors working at 133MHz FSB.
<%BANNER[article]%>By the end of the year VIA is going to enhance its Eden platforms quite significantly. For this purpose they will develop a new chipset. It will be CM400. CM400 will represent a continuation of the CLE266, but will differ a lot from the predecessor. The major innovation introduced in the new CM400 will be 200MHz FSB support, which VIA is going to implement in its future C3 CPUs. Moreover, CM400 will support more up-to-date memory: DDR266/DDR333/DDR400. As a result, CM400 will ensure much higher performance and VIA will be able to position its CM400 based platforms for the Performance sector.
Among other innovations of CM400 we should also mention an integrated 128bit 2D/3D graphics core of the new generation aka Unichrome2, AGP 4x/8x graphics port and V-Link 8x bus, which will allow using newer South Bridges.
We would also like to point out a few features of the new Unichrome2 graphics core, because CM400 seems to be the first chipset equipped with this core.
Unichrome2 boasts the following features: 166MHz working frequency, 2 pixel pipes & 2 texture units, 8MB to 64MB UMA frame buffer, DuoView technology support, Full MPEG2 decoder with iDCT and Motion compensation, External TV-out & LCD monitor interface, advanced power management and Unified Driver Set, suitable for all integrated VIA-S3 graphics cores.