Today VIA announced the new DDR333 supporting chipset KT333. VIA again extends their leading position in AMD supporting DDR chipsets. The new revision step is not such an evolutionary leap as the introduction of the KT266A chipset was though. Nonetheless the new KT333 chipset will mark the performance bar among DDR333 solutions. Reviews so far: KT333 Review @ AMDMB KT333 Review @ The Tech-Report KT333 Review @ [H]ardOCP KT333 Review @ Anandtech KT333 Review @ ViaHardware Read more... The VIA Apollo KT333 is the first VIA chipset to feature DDR333 memory offering 25% more memory bandwidth to the CPU. Supporting DDR200/266/333 memory and a complete range of 200/266MHz Front Side Bus AMD Athlon? XP and AMD Duron? processors, the VIA Apollo KT333 provides fast access to the faster system memory enabling best performance across the full application range. Included in the new chipset revision is the new VIA southbridge VT8233A supporting ATA133 naturally thus also harddisks bigger than 137GB. The Southbridge therefore performs 33% better in theory. Of course it still is downwards compatible to the older standards. Excerpt of the press release: Taipei, Taiwan, 20 February 2002 - VIA Technologies, Inc, a leading innovator and developer of core logic chipsets, microprocessors, and multimedia, networking and communications chips, today announced the launch of the VIA Apollo KT333, the first chipset to support new ultra fast DDR333 memory conforming to the JEDEC specification on the Socket A processor platform. With 25% more memory bandwidth, the VIA Apollo KT333 offers the ultimate in high performance computing, excelling in the most demanding applications, and fully exploiting the unmatched performance of powerful AMD Athlon? XP processors with QuantiSpeed? Architecture. Features & Benefits Summary Feature KT333 KT266A SiS 735 North Bridge VT8367 VT8366A SIS735 Processor Support AMD Athlon? XP AMD Athlon? XP AMD Athlon? XP AMD Duron? AMD Duron? AMD Duron? Front Side Bus 200/266MHz 200/266MHz 200/266MHz Memory Bus 200/266/333MHz 200/266MHz 200/266MHz AGP Support AGP 4X AGP 4X AGP 4X Memory Type DDR200/266/333 SDRAM DDR200/266 SDRAM DDR200/266 SDRAM Max. Memory 4.0GB 4.0GB 3.0GB South Bridge VT8233, VT8233C or VT8233A VT8233, VT8233C or VT8233A Integrated North/South Bridge Link VIA V-Link@ 266MB/s VIA V-Link@ 266MB/s SIS MuTIOL Integrated Audio AC?7 6 Channel AC?7 6 Channel AC?7 6 Channel Integrated Modem MC?7 MC?7 MC?7 Integrated Network Controller 3Com® (VT8233C) or VIA (VT8233 or 8233A) 10/100 Ethernet MAC 3Com® (VT8233C) or VIA (VT8233 or 8233A) 10/100 Ethernet MAC SIS 10/100 Ethernet MAC PCI Devices/Slots 5 PCI 5 PCI 6 PCI IDE ATA 33/66/100 ATA 33/66/100 ATA 33/66/100 ATA 133 with VT8233A South Bridge ATA 133 with VT8233A South Bridge USB 4 Ports, 2 Controllers 4 Ports, 2 Controllers 6 Ports, 3 Controllers Super I/O LPC Super I/O LPC Super I/O LPC Super I/O IO APIC Yes Yes Yes Power Management ACPI/APM/PCI/PM ACPI/APM/PCI/PM ACPI/APM/PCI/PM Key Features: Supports AMD Duron? and Athlon? Socket A processors
200/266MHz FSB settings
Support for AGP 2X/4X
Supports up to 4.0GB DDR200/266/333 SDRAM
266MB/sec high bandwidth North/South Bridge V-Link
Support for Advanced Communications Riser (ACR) Card Standard
Integrated 6 channel AC-97 Audio
Integrated MC-97 Modem
Integrated 10/100 BaseT Ethernet and 1/10Mb HomePNA controller
Support for ATA 33/66/100
6 USB ports, UHCI compliant
Advanced power management capabilities including ACPI/OnNow and AMD's PowerNow?
552-pin BGA VT8366A North Bridge
376-pin BGA VT8233 South Bridge