Evolution of the world's first DDR Pentium 4 platform featuring Performance Driven Design

In its never ending quest to drive the advancement of PC platform technology, VIA Technologies Inc. is constantly working to improve current chipset designs. The latest fruits of this drive towards evolution is the VIA Apollo P4X266A. Featuring the same performance enhancement technology as the successful Apollo KT266A, the Apollo P4X266A pushes the performance envelope even further, yet takes advantage of industry standard DDR266 memory.

Latest in a long line of "A" branded chipsets, the VIA Apollo P4X266A follows in the footsteps of previous successful designs. Starting with the VIA Apollo Pro133A, and continuing with the VIA Apollo KT133A and KT266A, the "A" line of performance chipsets have developed into a solid and well recognized force in the marketplace. "A" series chipsets demonstrate VIA's commitment to the continual evolution of platform design.

The VIA Apollo P4X266A further expands VIA's extensive line of Intel? Pentium? 4 chipsets. VIA now offers Pentium 4 platform solutions from top to bottom, with the VIA ProSavage P4M266 offering SMA graphics for the low end, the VIA Apollo P4X266 offering mainstream discrete performance, and the new VIA Apollo P4X266A covering the high end extreme performance segment.

Benefits

Enhanced Processor Bus

The VIA Apollo P4X266A features an enhanced processor bus interface that more efficiently takes advantage of the quad pumped bus of the Intel? Pentium? 4 processor. Now, up to 12 instructions can be queued in the processor bus interface, allowing the high speed 400MHz bus of current and Pentium? 4 processors to run at optimal efficiency. This also reduces latency between the processor and other peripherals and devices, which improves overall system operation. The VIA Apollo P4X266A also offers support for high bus speeds, allowing seamless upgradeability to possible future processors.

Performance Driven Design

Using the highly efficient memory controller of the renowned VIA Apollo KT266A, the VIA Apollo P4X266A offers exceptionally high memory performance. This is accomplished through improved timings and deepened queues. Supporting up to 4GB of DDR200 or DDR266 memory, the VIA Apollo P4X266A provides lightning fast access to system memory. Moreover, the VIA Apollo P4X266A offers a highly developed AGP4X interface, ensuring the highest possible graphics performance with a myriad of AGP4X graphics accelerators.

V-MAP

The VIA Apollo P4X266A is part of the family of VIA Modular Architecture Platforms (V-MAP). As a modular solution, the North and South Bridge of VIA Apollo P4X266A are completely pin compatible with current and future products. The VT8753A North Bridge of P4X266A is pin compatible with the VT8753 of P4X266, and the VT8751 of P4M266. Additionally, VT8753A can interface with three separate pin-compatible South Bridges: The VT8233 offering VIA Ethernet MAC, the VT8233C featuring 3Com Ethernet MAC, and the VT8233A supporting the new ATA/133 drive standard. With this wide range of pin-compatible products, up to six distinct chipsets are possible for Intelò Pentiumò 4 processors while using the same motherboard design.

High-Speed V-Link Hub Architecture

The VIA Apollo P4X266A takes advantage of VIA's high performance V-Link Hub Architecture, which provides a dedicated 266MB/s bus between the North and South Bridge. Less advanced chipsets use the 132MB/s PCI bus as a link, which must be shared with all PCI peripherals. V-Link greatly improves data transfer rates when high-speed interconnect technologies such as USB2.0, IEEE1394, and ATA/133 are implemented in a single system.