SiS offers DDR2-800, PCI Express and no AGP in 2004
by Anand Lal Shimpi on February 6, 2004 12:00 AM EST- Posted in
- CPUs
Continuing our recent trend of bringing you all the latest in unpublished CPU and Chipset roadmaps we have SiS' 2004 roadmap.
As usual, we'll keep it simple and jump straight into the chipsets:
| 2004 Pentium 4 Chipset Roadmap | ||
|---|---|---|
Chipset |
SiS 656 |
SiS 656FX |
| FSB Support | 400/533/800MHz |
400/533/800MHz |
| Memory Bus Width | Dual 64-bit |
Dual 64-bit |
| Memory Type(s) Supported | DDR266/333/400 - ECC DDR2 400/533/667 - ECC |
DDR2 400/533/667/800 - ECC |
| External Graphics Interface | PCI Express x16 |
PCI Express x16
|
| Other Interfaces | N/A |
N/A |
| Availability | April '04 |
Q4 '04 |
SiS' P4 chipset roadmap is very similar to Intel's in that none of their flagship chipsets this year will feature AGP support; SiS is moving very aggressively to PCI Express for graphics. This leaves VIA as the only chipset vendor providing a dual AGP/PCI Express solution for the Pentium 4.
Also unlike VIA, SiS does not include any PCI Express interface other than the x16 slot off of the North Bridge. The SiS South Bridges will initially offer 2 PCI Express x1 slots in April but then by the end of the year we'll see the 966 South Bridge with support for 4 PCI Express x1 slots.
DDR2-800 support will also be added by the end of the year - assuming memory availability.
| 2004 Pentium 4 RDRAM Chipset Roadmap | ||
|---|---|---|
Chipset |
SiS R659FX |
SiS R659TX |
| FSB Support | 400/533/800MHz |
400/533/800MHz |
| Memory Bus Width | 4 x 16-bit channels |
4 x 16-bit channels |
| Memory Type(s) Supported | PC1333 RDRAM |
PC1600 RDRAM |
| External Graphics Interface | PCI Express x16 |
PCI Express x16 |
| Other Interfaces | N/A |
N/A |
| Availability | Q3 '04 |
Q1 '05 |
For whatever reason, SiS will continue their RDRAM support throughout 2004 and into 2005 with these two chipsets. Other than the memory interface, everything else remains the same as the DDR based chipsets.
| 2004 Athlon 64/FX/Opteron Chipset Roadmap | ||
|---|---|---|
Chipset |
SiS 755FX |
SiS 756 |
| FSB Support | 1GHz Hyper Transport |
1GHz Hyper Transport |
| Memory Bus Width | N/A |
N/A |
| Memory Type(s) Supported | N/A |
N/A |
| External Graphics Interface | AGP 8X |
PCI Express x16 |
| Other Interfaces | N/A |
PCI Express x4 |
| Availability | Q1 '04 |
May '04 |
SiS' K8 roadmap is pretty straightforward: we have the 755FX for now and after May the 756 will be the last chipset for Athlon 64/FX/Opteron for 2004. Both of SiS' 2004 solutions will feature 1GHz HT support, while the 756 will add PCI Express x16 support. Unlike SiS' P4 chipsets, the 756 will also feature an x4 slot off of the North Bridge - presumably for Gigabit Ethernet PCI Express cards.
What's interesting to note is that SiS will not have any new Athlon XP chipsets for 2004 - this year will definitely be the year of the Athlon 64.
As we mentioned above, SiS' 2004 South Bridges will bring PCI Express x1 slots (2 at first, then 4 by the end of the year. In addition to that, starting in March with the 965 South Bridge SiS will offer 4 SATA ports in addition to Gigabit Ethernet support.
SiS does have chipsets with integrated graphics as offerings in addition to all of the aforementioned solutions, if you'd like to read about more mainstream chipsets as well please let us know so we can better tailor the information you.
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VIA Picks up the Pieces: AGP and PCI Express on 2004 Roadmap
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MoronBasher - Monday, February 9, 2004 - link
Sis still provides the best performance imo. I still remember when i first bought a sis 735 chipset based motherboards and see it run circles around via. even now, the 755fx and the 655tx runs circles around it's competitors. too bad not alot of companies use sis chipsets.synic - Monday, February 9, 2004 - link
anyone else find it odd that there is no mention yet of 2GHz HyperTransport? :(KristopherKubicki - Friday, February 6, 2004 - link
I will edit an addition on to the article concerning southbridges. SiS southbridges look at least a full generation ahead of VIA's. They have some interesting stuff like Azalia audio on the way too.Kristopher
araczynski - Friday, February 6, 2004 - link
I don't think anybody will really care about what SiS decides to do because they don't really serve the enthusiast market (at least not any enthusiast I've ever heard of). They fill generic boxes with generic board going to generic customers (in terms of PC technology knowledge)who will never open them and will happily eat whatever is put on their plate. The last thing they will care about is whether its AGP or PCI-Ex, if anything this will give the stupid salespeople some more technobabble to confuse the said generic people with "You should choose this model because is has the brand new PCI-Express and this one has the old AGP"Ummm, anyway, my point is, SiS doesn't make anythign an enthusiast would really buy, so for all i care they can go back to ISA.
amalinov - Friday, February 6, 2004 - link
I am more interested in southbridge developments;details about RAID, audio, wireless, etc.
Also I am much interested in IGP solutions. I think you should pay more attention to them (exact specifications, more performance analysis, issues & problems, etc.) than to GeforceFX Ultra/Radeon Pro 10000.
SiS760?
SiS760+LFB?
K8M800/UniChrome Pro
KM400(A)/UniChrome
ATI R9100IGP
nF3 IGP?
ALi/Trident...
Cygni - Friday, February 6, 2004 - link
Asus is the only partner that will produce a 659 board, the P4S13G. They were supposed to ship in December, but they didnt. Probably due to Samsung still not having PC4800 ready. There are a few previews online, that look pretty positive.Ecmaster76 - Friday, February 6, 2004 - link
Interesting about the 659 with PCI express, since I don't ever remember the 659 with AGP ever seeing daylight (one was in the works for a while according to SIS).Cygni - Friday, February 6, 2004 - link
Didnt this appear a day ago, then vanish? heh.