by Anna Filatova
05/20/2002 | 10:15 PM
As we learned from a number of sources, all Taiwanese chipset makers are going to welcome the new 8th generation AMD processors with the corresponding chipset announcements. This way, in Q4 2002, when the first ClawHammer processors are expected to be announced, the users will get a number of alternative core logic solutions from VIA, SIS and ALi, besides AMD’s own AMD-8000 chipset. This is a very pleasing fact, as AMD-8000 is very unlikely to become a good choice for ClawHammer as it will be evidently server-oriented.
ClawHammer is positioned as a CPU for high-performance desktop PCs and should be supported by chipsets, which do not belong to the top price-group. AMD-8000 in its turn, will support PCI-X bus, and will never be used in low-cost mainboards. From this point of view, Taiwanese chipset alternatives will be more than welcome.<%BANNER[article]%>
VIA is going to launch its K8HTB chipset for ClawHammer CPUs. This chipset manufactured with 0.22micron technology will support AGP 8x bus, V-Link 8x bus with 533MB/sec bandwidth, which will serve to connect it to the VT8235 South Bridge. The South Bridge in its turn will support ATA-133, 6 USB 2.0 ports, 6-channel AC’97 sound. Also a bit later it will acquire SerilaAT-150 and 802.11B support.
SiS is planning to release SiS755 chipset supporting AGL 8x and MuTIOL bus with 1GB/sec bandwidth. The chipset South Bridge, SiS968, will support 6 USB ports, 3 IEEE1394 ports, ATA/133, SerialATA-150 and ADSL. Later on this chip will also acquire 802.11B support.
ALi is also planning a chipset solution for Hammer family. The company is preparing M1687 chipset with AGP 8x support. The chipset North Bridge will be connected with the M1563 South Bridge by means of HyperTransport bus. In the South Bridge they will implement the support for USB 2.0, IEEE1394 and ATA/133 interfaces.
We also have some info about NVIDIA developing an integrated solution for Hammer, which will also be released in the end of the year. However, there are no details about it so far. All we know, is that it will be using a new generation graphics core.
In the first half of 2003 the leading chipset makers will also introduce their integrated solutions: VIA will launch its K8UMA with Zoetrope core, SiS – SiS760 with Xabre core, ALi – M1688 with Trident core. The distinguishing feature of all integrated chipsets for Hammer CPUs will be a separate DDR memory controller for the graphics subsystem. In other words, the CPU will use the memory connected to it via an integrated controller, and the graphics core in the chipset North Bridge will communicate with the graphics memory via another special memory controller.