VIA K8T800 Pro Chipset Optimized for New Generation of AMD Athlon™ 64 Processors with Official Support for 1GHz HyperTransport™ Technology I/O Bus

New AMD Athlon™ 64 processors 3500+ and 3800+ to take advantage of latest implementation of HyperTransport™ technology bus link between processor and chipset to provide unparalleled performance for demanding PC applications

Taipei, Taiwan, 1st June 2004 - VIA Technologies, Inc, a leading innovator and developer of silicon chip technologies and PC platform solutions, today announced that the VIA K8T800 Pro chipset, which has been optimized for the new AMD Athlon™ 64 processors, features official support for the 1GHz/16-bit HyperTransport™ technology bus.

By increasing the bi-directional HyperTransport technology link from 800MHz, as featured on previous VIA K8 Series chipsets, to 1GHz, the total theoretical bandwidth between the system’s processor and the VIA K8T800 Pro is increased to an impressive 8.0GB/s. The additional bandwidth brings a performance boost to CPU and memory-intensive business applications, as well as today’s most demanding 3D and digital media applications. Performance of systems featuring the new AMD Athlon processors 3500+ and 3800+ is further enhanced by support for dual channel unbuffered DDR400 SDRAM.

The VIA K8T800 Pro also features an asynchronous bus architecture, providing improved system optimization options to enable power users to squeeze the very most out of their AMD Athlon 64 processor-based systems. This new architecture enables the AGP and PCI buses to be locked in the event of the system’s front side bus or clock multiplier being tweaked for faster performance, essentially providing a stable overclocking platform.

"With the introduction of the VIA K8T800 Pro chipset, VIA is once again helping push the envelope of system performance,” said John Morris, manager, desktop product marketing, AMD’s Computation Products Group. “The combination of the VIA K8T800 Pro chipset and the latest AMD Athlon 64 processors provides an excellent platform for the next generation of 64-bit capable systems that offer immersive gaming and an amazing digital media experience."

“Offering support for a 1GHz HyperTransport technology bus and high-performance unbuffered dual channel DDR400 memory, the new AMD Athlon 64 processors and the K8T800 Pro chipset combine perfectly to create a platform capable of delivering the ultimate PC gaming and entertainment experience,” commented Richard Brown, Associate Vice President of Marketing, VIA Technologies, Inc.

Motherboards featuring the VIA K8T800 Pro and support for new AMD Athlon 64 processors with the 939-pin interface will be available in early June from the world’s leading motherboard manufacturers, including ABIT, Albatron, ASUS, DFI, Epox, Jetway, MSI, and Soltek.

About the VIA K8T800 Pro Chipset

Designed to support a complete range of AMD Athlon 64, AMD Athlon 64 FX, and AMD Opteron™ processors, the VIA K8T800 Pro leverages VIA’s Hyper8 technology to enable a 1GHz/16-bit HyperTransport technology processor-to-chipset link, delivering up to 8GB/s of bandwidth to help ensure all AMD64 processor-based systems achieve their full performance potential.

In combination with the market-leading VIA VT8237 South Bridge and a broad array of VIA companion chips, the VIA K8T800 Pro chipset provides the most comprehensive range of storage, multimedia and connectivity features available for the AMD64 processor platform today, including native Serial ATA and V-RAID, 6-channel or 8-channel VIA Vinyl audio, VIA Velocity™ Gigabit Ethernet, USB2.0, and 1394.

The VIA K8T800 Pro is part of VIA's unique Modular Architecture Platform (V-MAP), which minimizes design times and time-to-market for motherboard partners through a flexible, pin-compatible design approach for VIA core-logic solutions. Motherboard partners are able to cover multiple market segments with fewer design resources, and also benefit from a single unified driver base.

For further information about the VIA K8T800 Pro chipset please visit the VIA website at: http://www.via.com.tw/en/k8-series/k8t800pro.jsp.