Mamba chipset cancelled
As if this day was not bad enough...
See xbitlabs.com
"Wednesday, June 20, 2001
Core Logic Manufacturers Keep Working Hard on Athlon Chipsets [5:12 pm] Gavric
It feels like all the chipsets for Socket A CPUs with both PC133 SDRAM and DDR SRDAM support have already been released. After SiS 735 and the renovated version of VIA KT266 with an improved memory controller enter mass production, nothing new can be awaited to appear. However, this impression has proven false... The Taiwanese chipset triad keep on working on their new products supporting Athlon and Duron CPUs. It's noteworthy that most of the chipsets, which are due in the second half of this year, will be provided with integrated graphics.
Let us take a closer look at the novelties that will come out in the next six months. Discrete chipsets (without integrated graphics) will be made only by those manufacturers that are unsatisfied with their latest DDR chipsets and would like to replace them with faster, more stable solutions showing better price-to-performance ratio.
Thus, the unsuccessful ALi MAGiK 1 which is often slower than PC133 SDRAM chipset from VIA, KT133A, will be withdrawn from the market to free the way for ALi M1667 supporting both PC133 SDRAM and DDR SDRAM, which is due in the end of the year. In the new product we'll find an improved memory controller, AGP 8x support and a new high-speed bus to connect the Bridges. Most likely, it will be HyperTransport.
SiS is busy creating a new core logic too. But it is pretty happy with its latest chipset, SiS 735, as well. The company's new offspring, SiS 745, will have just a separate South Bridge, SiS 961A, not integrated into the single chip together with the North Bridge like it was in SiS 735. This variant has proven more convenient for the mainboard makers. SiS 745 is remarkable for its bus connecting the North and the South Bridges. It will be a specially designed ZIPLink based on HyperTransport protocol but with only 8bit width and 266MHz frequency. Together with PC2100/PC1600 DDR SDRAM, the new SiS 745 will support such memory types as PC2700 and PC2400 DDR SRDAM. SiS has scheduled this core logic for the second quarter of 2002.
As for the integrated Socket A chipsets, after the mass production of VIA KM/KL133A and NVIDIA nForce in Q3'2001 we expect to see some interesting items.
For instance, in Q1 2002 VIA plans to launch an integrated core logic with DDR SDRAM support, KM266. In fact, KM266 will be a none other but the well-known KT266 with a built-in Savage4 graphics core and external AGP 4x graphics cards support. Naturally, VIA KM266 will be slower than NVIDIA nForce (moreover, NVIDIA is preparing its Crush18 with NV17 integrated core), but VIA hopes to provide a considerably lower price for its integrated DDR chipset.
SiS is working hard on two integrated chipsets for Athlon, SiS 740 and SiS 741. Both these products will follow the architecture of the above-mentioned SiS 745 and will be equipped with the ZIPLink bus connecting the North and the South SiS 961A Bridge. As a graphics core for these chipsets, SiS will introduce its own achievement - SiS 315. The main difference between SiS 740 and SiS 741 will be the absence of an external AGP slot support in SiS 740. SiS 740 is reported to be launched in the first quarter and SiS 741 is awaited three months later.
It's a pity, but two more chipsets for Athlon CPUs which were much talked about earlier this year won't come into being at all. We mean the chipsets from Micron, Scimitar with the integrated graphics and Mamba with a built-in L3 cache. Micron refused to launch desktop chipsets at all, so Mamba and Scimitar were rejected."
Peter |
