According to a HKEPC’s report, VIA has scheduled its new unified chipset for AMD platform in second half of 2007. “As a unified chipset, the new model would help VIA to fight in the value market more effective by a lowered cost. Further, supporting Hyper-Transport 3.0 means the chipset is also ready for AMD AM2+ processors”, the HKEPC has learned from motherboard manufacturing sources.
There will be 2 chipsets released from VIA for AMD platform. These new models include KT960 and KM960 which has build-in Chrome9 HD IGP-KM960. They are in unified design, which helps in lowering the cost, the report says.
Featuring Hyper-Transport 3.0, VIA KT960 and KM960 enable an enhanced speed of Hyper-Transport from 1GHz in previous version to 2.6GHz. This makes KT960 and KM960 ready for AMD next-generation AM2+ processors and multi-core processors in the soon coming future. VIA KT960 and KM960 both have 1 PCI-Express x16, 2 PCI-Express x1, 1 IDE, and 4 SATA II (3Gb/s, NCQ, AHCI) interfaces, where the SATA part supports Port Multiplier which enables up to 16 SATA devices connected in 1 wire. The chipsets provide RAID function with VIA RAID StorX technology. VIA KT960 and KM960 also feature Gigabit Ethernet, HD Audio, and 10 USB 2.0, according to the HKEPC’s sources.
