Review: AMD's DDR chipset and the new Athlon

Further DDR chipsets

DDR chipsets are available for both AMD Athlon/Duron and Pentium-III systems. VIA, AMD, ALi, and Micron are either waiting in the wings with their products or have announced them already. The DDR technology offers the advantage that the chipsets support both SDR-DRAM and DDR-SDRAM. So PC133 and PC266 will no longer require special chipsets. The MTH bypass is thus eliminated.

ALi

The first mainboards equipped with ALi DDR chipsets are scheduled to come off the conveyor belt by the end of 2000. ALi offers the ALiMAGiK 1 for AMD's Athlon/Duron processors, Intel CPUs can resort to the Aladdin Pro 5. Both chipsets support up to 3 GB in terms of main memory: the options include EDO, PC100/133-SDRAM and PC200/266-DDR-SDRAM. The M1535D+ South Bridge is used in both chipsets. It comprises six USB ports, UltraDMA/100 support and integrated sound/modem features.

AMD

At the beginning of 2001, AMD is going to present the multi-processor version of the AMD 760. The chipset dubbed AMD 760MP supports SMP for two Athlon/Duron processors. The AMD 762 North Bridge of the multi-processor chipset supports PC266-DDR-SDRAM of up to 4 GB. The memory may consist of up to four registered DIMMs. AGP4X, UltraDMA/100, and 32-bit as well as 64-bit PCI busses with 33 or 66 MHz are also on the feature list. The AMD 760MP supports the MOESI cache protocol of the Athlon processors. This will not only ensure that both processors always read current data and/or keep them in the cache - the chipset also uses its cache handling scheme to cut down on memory access and to enhance system performance in this way.

Micron

At the Microprocessor Forum 2000, memory manufacturer Micron Semiconductor presented their Mamba, a PC chipset with Athlon interface and embedded DRAM. The 8 MB memory serves as L3 cache. However, Micron has so far been rather hesitant to provide further on the Athlon chipset Mamba. DDR-SDRAM support, AGP4X and a 64-bit PCI-X interface is all we've known up to now. Micron also maintains a stony silence on the availability of the chipset.

VIA

In addition to the Apollo Pro266 for Intel processors, which was already tested by tecChannel.de, the Apollo KT266 for Athlon/Duron processors is scheduled for launch this year. Both chipsets support up to 4 GB PC200/266 DDR-SDRAM. PC66/100/133 memory and VCM are further options. The list of features also includes UltraDMA/100, six USB ports as well as integrated audio, modem and network features. Both chipsets use the same VT8233 South Bridge. Contrary to the Apollo Pro266 for Intel CPUs, the Apollo KT266 does not offer multi-processing capabilities.