VIA PT Series: VIA PCI Express for Intel
by Wesley Fink on January 31, 2005 12:01 PM EST- Posted in
- CPUs
VIA 8251 South Bridge
The new 8251 southbridge adds many new capabilities to the 894 chipset family.- 2 x PCI-Express
- Connects 2 single PCI Express devices
- VIA DriveStation
- 2 Integrated IDE interfaces for 4 ATA133 devices
- 4 SATA ports for 4 SATA HDDs
- SATA II
- Advanced Host Controller Interface (AHCI)
- Command queue
- Support for Port Multiplier
- Integrated V-RAID
- RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 0+1 & JBOD
- Support for RAID 5
- 8 USB 2.0 ports
- Integrated VIA 10/100 Ethernet
- High Definition Audio
- 192k/24bit 8-channel audio
- AC97 96K/20-bit 8 channel audio
- Ultra V-Link
VIA Drive Station also fully supports a Port Multiplier.
The Port Multiplier allows multiple hard drives to be connected to a single SATA connection. VIA claims up to 60 hard drives can be supported with a Port Multiplier on the 8251 southbridge.
New Audio Options
VIA is justifiably proud of their VIA Vinyl audio technology. The Vinyl series covers a full range of audio solutions from simple on-board audio to the audio chips driving many of the most-admired audio cards currently on the market. The new 8251 can support a number of audio options from the simple AC '97 to the sophisticated Vinyl Gold onboard controller.- VIA Vinyl HD Audio
- VIA Vinyl AC'97 7.1 Support
- VIA Vinyl Gold Onboard Controller
- VIA Envy24PT + VIA Eight-TRAC + additional DAC
- 24/96 resolution digital outputs
- VIA Stylus Audio Driver
- Integrated QSound Technology
- Immerzio Gaming Support
- Audio Gaming Support
- Q3D
- DirectSound, DirectSound3D, A3D and I3DL2 advanced 3D positioning
- Support for 2-7.1 channel speaker systems
- QEM
- EAX and EAX2.0-compatible acoustic environment simulation for headphones and 2 to 7.1 channel speaker systems
- QXpander
- Mono to 3D and stereo to 3D stereo sound stage synthesis and enhancement for headphones and stereo speakers
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ChineseDemocracyGNR - Monday, January 31, 2005 - link
#14,we don't even know if the PT894 Pro will be more expensive than the PT894, or if it's just a name to help motherboard companies promote their DualGFX products. The nVidia nForce4 SLI is $20 more expensive than the Ultra.
As far as "restoring VIA's reputation", they're not going to focus on that when releasing new products. I have worked with their recent chipsets (PT880, PT800, KT880, KT600, K8T800, K8T800Pro) and I don't think there's anything else they could other than continue to bring good chipsets at low prices to make people that had a bad experience with them 5 years ago change their minds.
quanta - Monday, January 31, 2005 - link
If the nForce4 Ultra/SLI mod is of any indication, the PT894[Pro] will be a crippleware scam! Unlike NVIDIA, VIA no longer have any marketing lead to afford ripping off motherboard makers. Support for DDR memory isn't going to restore VIA's reputation, especially with the emerging NVIDIA chipset on Intel platform...ChineseDemocracyGNR - Monday, January 31, 2005 - link
Just for the curious, PCPer has pictures of PT880 Pro and PT894 Pro boards. So what? Well, the PT894 Pro is using the VT8251 southbridge. :)http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=114&type=...
These two look very much like Jetway boards from the color scheme. ABIT's PT880Pro is also there.
MS - Monday, January 31, 2005 - link
"Amd socket 939 = socket 754 + 184 pin = 938 pin "That's not exactly how it works, there are a number of power and ground pins that are not tied to the CPU at all. In other words, the calculation comes out somewhat close to reality but that is just coincidence. Otherwise, the Socket940 which needs to use 8 extra data lines and additional clock input would have a much higher pin count than just one over 939.
Wesley Fink - Monday, January 31, 2005 - link
ALL - We apologize for the confusion this morning. The article posted at 6AM when the VIA NDA was 12 Noon EST (9AM PST). As soon as we realized this the article came down and went back up at the correct NDA time.#6 - Corrected
Dranzerk - Monday, January 31, 2005 - link
Wow, this will make for a nice upgrade path for people. If they show up on market fast enough, and ample supply they should do well.Jep4444 - Monday, January 31, 2005 - link
Socket 754 and 939 have a few useless pins. I believe 939 has an extra useless pin.I'm not sure if thats how it works though.
nserra - Monday, January 31, 2005 - link
The power of the DDR dimm is drained by the amd processor, or by board? If its the board how many pins are needed? Thanks in advance.#avijay thanks but you didnt answer my question:
- Amd socket 939 = socket 754 + 184 pin = 938 pin
avijay - Monday, January 31, 2005 - link
#5 skt939 has dual channel memory controller, not single channel like skt754. I think you can add that for the extra pin in the pin count.avijay - Monday, January 31, 2005 - link
As always, a very nice article! Just one thing to point out:(Page 6) table:
VIA PT894 Reference Board Specifications
CPU Interface Socket 939 Athlon 64 ???
shouldn't that be skt 775!
you might like to correct that wesley.