VIA Announces Adoption of K8T890 chipset by World’s Leading Motherboard Manufacturers

Leading motherboard partners ABIT, ASUS, EPoX, Gigabyte and MSI expected to offer VIA K8T890 based motherboards in mid-Q4, leveraging the unique VIA Flex Express Architecture to deliver platforms on the cutting-edge

Taipei, Taiwan, October 22 2004, – VIA Technologies, Inc, a leading innovator and developer of silicon chip technologies and PC platform solutions, today announced widespread support for the VIA K8T890 chipset from leading PC motherboard manufacturers, delivering PCI Express graphics and peripheral support for the AMD Platform.

VIA K8T890 Series chipsets support a complete range of AMD Athlon™ 64, Athlon 64 FX, Opteron™, and Sempron™ processors, delivering high performance, comprehensive features, and solid reliability. Featuring a PCI Express x16 connection with up to 8GB/s of dedicated graphics bandwidth, VIA K8T890 Series chipsets are optimized to work seamlessly with the latest PCI Express graphics cards (http://www.via.com.tw/en/products/chipsets/flex-express/), and also provide up to four PCI Express x1 connections to high-bandwidth peripheral devices.

‘In addition to offering unparalleled performance, features, and stability, VIA K8T890 Series chipsets also offer the industry’s most flexible PCI Express implementation available,’ commented Chewei Lin, Vice President of Product Marketing, VIA. ‘For our partners this means that they can deliver solutions with extensive PCI Express connectivity to ensure customers a future proof platform to support the latest PC peripherals.’

Widespread Industry Support for VIA K8T890 Series Chipsets

Among the first motherboard manufacturers to announce products based around the advanced architecture VIA K8T890 Series chipset are ABIT, ASUS, EPoX, Gigabyte and MSI.

“ABIT’s VIA-based motherboards have already been named as the Ultimate DOOM3 motherboards. With the arrival of the VIA K8T890 chipset based AX8 from ABIT, gamers around the world have the ultimate gaming upgrade.  With AMD K8 CPU support and the first to offer PCI Express for the AMD platform, this platform is unquestionably the board to have right now.” said Scott Thirlwell, Marketing Director of ABIT.

‘By harnessing the power and flexible options of the VIA K8T890 chipset, the A7V-E works seamlessly with AMD64 processors, and the latest PCI Express graphics cards to provide an unsurpassed 3D graphics and digital multimedia experience.’ said Joe Hsieh, Director of ASUS Motherboard Business.

‘By enabling PCI Express support for the AMD64 platform, the VIA K8T890 chipset is providing AMD users the ability to upgrade with peace of mind that they have a future proof system,’ commented Timothy Hsu, Product marketing manager, EPoX. ‘EPoX’s new EP-8HEAI leverages the advanced VIA Flex Express Architecture of the VIA K8T890 chipset to provide blistering performance and rock-solid stability for a new generation PCI Express enabled Athlon 64 motherboards.’

‘The GA-K9VT890 offers the perfect platform for end-users and system integrators wanting to move to a PCI Express compatible motherboard for AMD64 processors’ commented Tony Liao, Associate Vice President, Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd. ‘The VIA K8T890 chipset delivers the right balance of performance, stability and flexibility, as well as providing unmatched connectivity and I/O options to ensure our customers get the most from GIGABYTE’s motherboard.’

‘The combination of the VIA K8T890 chipset’s advanced architecture and MSI’s proven expertise in motherboard design and engineering provides the ultimate platform for a generation of users who have been waiting for a high-performance and future proof PCI Express compatible platform.’ commented Charles Jiang, Vice President of R&D Division, MSI.

About the VIA K8T890 Chipset

Optimized for a complete range of AMD Athlon 64, Athlon 64 FX, Opteron, and Sempron processors, VIA K8T890 Series chipsets feature the unique VIA Flex Express Architecture to allow the industry’s most flexible implementations of PCI Express devices. Multiple device configurations can be implemented, with support for up to five PCI Express devices directly into the chipset North Bridge and a total of 20 PCI Express lanes for a combined bandwidth of 10GB/s.

VIA K8T890 Series chipsets include support for the latest PCI Express x16 graphics cards, and up to four PCI Express x1 connections to high speed PCI Express peripherals, such as Gigabit Ethernet and bandwidth hungry HDTV tuner cards. Forthcoming solutions from the VIA K8T890 Series will include the VIA DualGFX Express feature, a solution that stands ready to support all dual graphics card industry standards. VIA DualGFX Express provides enhanced single application performance with supporting graphics cards and multi-monitor support for power multitasking without tying up vital system bandwidth.

VIA K8T890 Series chipsets also feature an asynchronous bus architecture, providing improved system optimization options to enable power users to squeeze the very most out of their systems.

When combined with the market-leading VIA VT8237 South Bridge and a broad array of VIA companion chips, VIA K8T890 Series chipsets provide 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, USB2.0, and 1394.

For further information about VIA K8T890 Series chipsets please visit the VIA website at:
http://www.via.com.tw/en/products/chipsets/k8-series/k8t890/


About VIA Technologies, Inc.

VIA Technologies, Inc. (TSE 2388) is the foremost fabless supplier of market-leading core logic chipsets, low power x86 processors, advanced connectivity, multimedia, networking and storage silicon, and complete platform solutions that are driving system innovation in the PC and embedded markets. Headquartered in Taipei, Taiwan, VIA’s global network links the high tech centers of the US, Europe and Asia, and its customer base includes the world’s top OEMs, motherboard vendors and system integrators. www.via.com.tw