VIA Chipsets

By Stephen Bucaro

Although most people think the microprocessor is the most important part on a computers motherboard, the "chipset" is equally important. The chipset consists of a northbridge chip that connects the microprocessor to the systems memory and video circuitry, and a southbridge chip that provides connections to the hard drive, PCI slots and USB ports.

Important features to consider when selecting a chipset are:

1. The Front Side Bus (FSB) speed. The FSB is the bus over which the northbridge chip communicates with the microprocessor. A faster FSB allows you to use a more powerful microprocessor.

2. The northbridge chip defines the type and speed of memory modules that your motherboard can utilize. It also defines the speed of your video (AGP) interface. Does the chip have on-board video circuitry, or will you be required to install a video card?

3. The southbridge chip defines your hard disk drive interface and what I/O features your motherboard will have. Does it provide a parallel (ATA) interface or a serial (SATA) interface, and what is the speed? Does it provide on-board modem and networking circuitry, or will you be required to install expansions cards?

4. The northbridge to southbridge communication speed. Your hard disk drive is controlled by the southbridge chip. The microprocessor is connected to the northbridge chip (by the FSB). Obviously, if the northbridge and southbridge chips can't communicate with each other at high speed, you have a bottleneck.

Via was founded in 1997. Via introduced the VP1 chipset to compete with Intel's 430 series. The VP1 offered support for EDO, BEDO and SDRAM as well as UltraDMA ahead of Intel. Today Via is one of the worlds largest chipset manufacturers and Via's chipsets are competitive with the most advanced technology in the market.

KT600

Released in May of 2003, the KT600 features a 400 MHz Front Side Bus that can transfer data at 3.2 GB/s. It uses the KT600 North Bridge and the VT8237 South Bridge. This chipset was designed to support the AMD Athlon XP 3200+ processor. This chipset features an integrated SATA/RAID controller.

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