We have recently got some very interesting info on the upcoming VIA chipset for Intel Pentium 4 processors. It looks as if the company decided to give up QBM support, which they have initially planned for their P4X333 chipset due in Q1 2002. As you might remember, QBM technology theoretically allows increasing the memory bus bandwidth by using special memory modules. However, it looks as if VIA had abandoned the support of exotic technologies in favour of more traditional solutions. As a result, P4X333 chipset will support only PC2700 and PC2100 DDR SDRAM.
However, instead of implementing QBM SDRAM in P4X333, VIA decided to develop another chipset for Pentium 4 processors, which will support dual-channel DDR SDRAM. This chipset will be P4X600 due in Q2 2002. Due to 128bit memory bus supporting DDR266 or DDR333 pairs of modules, this chipset will grant peak memory bandwidth of 4.2GB/sec or 5.3GB/sec. This way the memory bus in P4X600 will feature even greater bandwidth than Pentium 4 processor bus now offering 3.2GB/sec in case of 100MHz FSB and 4.2GB/sec in case of 133MHz FSB.
Thanks to the use of two DDR SDRAM channels, P4X600 may turn out even faster than Intel’s Tehama-E coming out in Q2 and supposed to support two PC1064 RDRAM channels with the overall bandwidth of 4.2GB/sec.
By the way, Intel, just like VIA, is planning to release a dual-channel DDR SDRAM core logic for Pentium 4 processor. This chipset aka Granite Bay is scheduled for Q3 2002 and will be positioned as high-performance solution for Low-End servers and workstations.
In conclusion, we would like to remind you that VIA hasn’t yet received Intel’s license for Pentium 4 system bus that is why all its chipsets for this processor are still illegal.