![[H]ardOCP](/images/blank.gif){kind=small}
- Date:
- Monday , June 03, 2002
- Author:
- Kyle Bennett
- Editor:
- Steve Lynch
- Google +1
Computex Edition I
KT400, NV18, Hammer, Serial ATA, New VIA GPU & Chipset, and get a load of this; vacuum tubes make a debut back into the tech market.
VIA Technologies:
VIA is another company that has risen to new heights over the last few years, primarily fueled by building chipsets for the AMD K7 platforms. While they have been content in getting rich off of AMD's success and a lot of hard work on their own part, they are certainly not sitting around banking on AMD to fill their coffers anymore.
VIA has been slowly diversifying their product line up and it seems as though they are now really breaking new ground. You have seen the press releases on our news pages but here is a run down of what we see as important as what was discussed in their press conference about 12 hours ago.
Envy24HT:
Creative Labs has been the controlling force in sound cards for years now and VIA seems very focused on changing that. Timothy Chen of VIA stated, "...we will give Creative a run for their money." He also went on to say that VIA wants to see every add in sound card using their new sound chip named "Envy24HT". What VIA is going to do different that almost anyone else has ever done is share their technology rather than keep it proprietary. Instead of boring you with regurgitation of the information, here is a quote from VIA.
The VIA Envy24HT is a versatile 24-bit multi-channel audio controller that enables studio level audio performance. With support for 10 outbound streams the VIA Envy24HT can easily support the latest theatre quality 5.1, 6.1 or even 7.1 surround sound systems. For enhanced playback the VIA Envy24HT enables hardware downmixing that allows customers to experience the complete surround sound experience whether using four, or even two speakers.
Supporting up to 192kHz sampling rates the VIA Envy24HT has the highest audio recording quality in its class giving home studio musicians four simultaneous inbound streams with all paths passing as 24-bit audio, "as is", unaltered, bit per bit accurate. The VIA Envy24HT also brings full support for Windows® WDM drivers.
One thing is that VIA seemed to be committed to quality here as well as getting in and trying to dominate the marketplace with a solid product. Think about how NVIDIA was key in demise of 3dfx. 3dfx was keeping all their technology close to home and doing their own manufacturing. This and many other key factors caused the 3dfx bankruptcy. I think the same future is possible for Creative. As VIA allows all takers to use their technology, we will see increased competition and vastly improving add-in by the card builders. This is certainly good for us end users.
The only question remains is the Envy24HT a good part? We heard is working and it sounded great, but let's just wait and see now if the card builders can get the same performance out of it.
For more information on the Envy sound part head over to VIA's page with full specifications.
VIA C3 at 1GHZ:
VIA is certainly committed to the C3 processor and to the Socket 370 platform as they are pushing further ahead and tell us that they have no plans to abandon the S370 in the near future. The new C3 that is being produced features a build having a .13 micron architecture, 64kb L2 and 128kb L1 full speed caches, and will support both 100 and 133MHz busses while utilizing the MMX and 3DNow! instruction sets.
While of course the low FPU performance of the C3 keeps it out of the gaming arena, that is certainly not where VIA sees it being successful. Low end home and office appliances that required a small form factor and very little cooling are its targeted areas.
The expensive noise dampening and cooling mechanisms of today's multi GHz systems with their massive power supplies are driving the market to more affordable unobtrusive solutions. Recognizing this, system designs are moving towards smaller form factors that break the traditional mould of the large white PC box for office, home and school systems. With a typical power consumption of a mere 5.7 watts, the VIA C3™ 1GHz processor only requires a standard small fan and heat sink to operate with rock solid reliability and stability, even in tough thermal conditions.
The entire Press Release can be found here at VIA's site.
CLE266 Chipset
Another VIA release today targets the mainstream market for folks wanting to meld home entertainment with their PC platform. The CLE266 chipset is designed to play DVDs and MPEG2 content with very low power CPUs i.e. their C3 line of CPUs. VIA showed and example of their C3 at 533MHz running DVD movie content compared to a Pentium 4 i845 / GF4 MX solution. The
For those of you looking to build a set top box for the living room, this may just be the thing you are looking for.
The VIA Apollo CLE266 boasts a complete integrated VIA 128-bit 2D/3D graphics engine with a high quality video processing unit including MPEG-2 decoding, video scaling and Alpha Blending. In addition, there is support for CRT, LCD or TV dual display technology, two Video Capture ports and Picture in Picture functionality for multi-channel capability. The VIA Apollo CLE266 North Bridge is connected to the very latest in South Bridge technology, the VT8235 through a 4X V-Link connection to the North Bridge transferring data at 266MB/s, twice the speed of the conventional PCI bus. This enables CLE266 based systems and devices to take advantage of the integrated support for 6 USB 2.0 ports with 40 times more bandwidth than USB 1.1, as well as ATA-133, the fastest available IDE interface. Additional features include integrated VIA MAC for 10/100Mbps Ethernet, integrated PCI support, 6 Channel Surround Sound AC'97 audio interface and MC'97 modem.
We think that a system of this nature sporting the CLE266 will allow the flexibility that many computer users have been looking for allowing them to not be faced with having to place a tower format case in their living rooms while still allowing network access to digital content that is becoming widely popular among enthusiasts.
Alpha Chrome Mobile Graphics:
VIA has kicked off a discrete 3D part for the mobile industry. The Alpha Chrome part will come in a few different packages, probably the most impressive being the their M16 and M32 parts that have integrated memory on chip.
S3 Graphics' AlphaChrome is currently moving into pre-production phase with the perfect balance of next generation 3D performance, ultra-low power and fully integrated mobile features. The new core boasts a multi-pipeline, multi-texture 3D processing engine with 128-bit DDR memory interface for demanding 3D applications. A 2-channel LVDS transmitter, CRT DAC and TV-encoder rounds out the integrated display features to compliment the S3 Graphics' DuoView capability. Also included is S3 Graphics' 5th generation Motion Compensation engine for picture perfect DVD playback.
From a 3D performance standpoint, VIA representatives fully admitted that the current parts will not outperform the ATi Mobility Radeon 7500, but that a part named Alpha Chrome Prime was already being worked on that should best the current top-end ATi solution and was as close as a month away from launch.
SavageXP GPU:
VIA is also attacking the mainstream GPU market with their new SavageXP solution. They have already teamed with such well known names as Gigabyte and even Tyan to produce the cards.
The Tyan card is shown above and notice that the GPU does not require active cooling, keeping in line with VIA's "silent PC" philosophy.
Configured with a 64MB frame buffer, the SavageXP features high performance 128bit DDR memory interface, with over 5.7 GB/s memory bandwidth. Hardware transform and lighting geometry processing feeds a feature rich quad texture graphics architecture. Focusing on high-quality video functions including DVI and TV-Out, the SavageXP also integrates the S3Graphics Duo-View™ Plus supporting Microsoft® Windows® XP extended desktop on permutations of multi-display options. Advance power management features supports low acoustic fan-less designs. Extensive driver support ensures compatibility with latest operating systems.
This mainstream GPU does seem to have some impressive features for a low priced card, but of course the proof is in the pudding with such competition as the GF4 MX on the market. Keep in mind SiS is also pushing their new GPUs at the mainstream market as well. It will be interesting to see how this all plays out over the next few months.
Check out VIA's page for the full scoop.