Motherboards in 2000 Preview - Part 1: Chipsets

VIA's KX133 - The Athlon's Savior

In the first quarter of 2000, we will finally see the introduction and mainstream availability of the first non-AMD, Athlon chipset, the VIA KX133. The KX133 offers support for AGP 4X, Ultra ATA 66, and as the name implies, the PC133 specification. The support for the 133MHz memory bus also comes with support for VC133 SDRAM and paves the way for the move to the 266MHz effective operating frequency of the EV6 bus (133MHz x 2).

The KX133 chipset is complete and ready for shipping. VIA is geared up for high volume production of the KX133, so there should be no problem meeting the demands for the chipset. Right now VIA is helping the motherboard manufacturers that will be using the KX133 perfect their designs so that we don't get another repeat of the initial wave of Athlon motherboards into the market.

Although we'll most likely see a wide variety of manufacturers producing KX133 based motherboards there are four manufacturers in particular that will be leading the pack: AOpen, Biostar, FIC and Epox. Expect to see KX133 parts from all of those manufacturers in mass quantities before the end of the first quarter next year. Some KX133 samples have already been seen floating around, but, for the most part, the beginning of Y2K will mark the introduction of the KX133 chipset into the motherboard market.

Unfortunately, the first revision of the KX133 will not support DDR SDRAM; instead, VIA will release a successor to the KX133 with DDR SDRAM support. There will be two different pinouts of the KX133: one geared towards the 462-pin Socket-A and the other made for Slot-A. While VIA did not offer an in-depth explanation to us as to what the exact difference is, they did make it clear that there would be some difference between the two different pinouts of the KX133.

Following the KX133, we will see the release of the KM133, a Socket-A chipset featuring a Savage4 or maybe even a Savage 2000 core integrated into the North Bridge of the chipset.

On the topic of dual processor Athlon chipsets, VIA will not be producing one in the foreseeable future leaving AMD as the only option for a dual processor Athlon chipset in 2000.