Support pledged for PT880 chipset

Motherboard makers show strong support for VIA's top-end chipset for the Pentium 4

Leading motherboard manufacturers have pledged strong support for VIA's top-end PT880 dual-channel chipset for Intel's Pentium 4 processor.

Asus, Gigabyte, ABIT, Chaintech and MSI are just some of those building PT880-based motherboards for high-performance and enthusiast customers.

The PT880 supports 800MHz FSB, Hyper-Threading, AGP 8X and includes the new DualStream64 dual-channel DDR400 memory controller.

DualStream64 promises very fast access to system memory, thanks to the use of an enhanced data pre-fetch protocol, improved memory branch predictions, and tighter read/write turn-around for improved clock timings.

Describing the target audience as ranging from high-performance gamers to professional users, Richard Brown, VIA's associate vice-president of marketing, said: "DualStream64 fully answers their memory demands.

"The unique intuitive memory controller technologies that maximise dual-channel DDR400 memory performance make the VIA PT880 chipset the industry's most balanced chipset for the Intel Pentium 4 processor."

Scott Thirlwell, marketing director at ABIT, said: "The upcoming VIA PT880-based VT7 motherboard will not disappoint our fans, thanks to the outstanding dual DDR400 memory performance enabled by VIA's new DualStream64 memory controller."

Joe Hsieh, director of motherboard business division Asus, said: "The VIA PT880 is the latest in a long series of reliable, high-performance chipsets from VIA that have helped build the success of our acclaimed motherboards for the Pentium 4 processor."

In addition to enabling native support for two Serial ATA hard drives and up to four IDE devices, the PT880 protects data integrity with the new V-Raid integrated Raid controller.

There is also support for 6- and 8-channel audio, integrated 10/100Mbps Fast Ethernet and up to eight USB 2.0 ports.