CeBIT 2000 Coverage - Athlon Motherboards

Gigabyte GA-7VMM

Motherboard Specifications
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CPU Interface	Slot-A
Chipset	VIA KX133 VIA 371 North Bridge VIA 686A South Bridge Unknown integrated graphics controller
L2 Cache	N/A (on-chip)
Form Factor	microATX
Bus Speeds	Unknown
Voltages Supported	Unknown
Memory Slots	2 168-pin DIMM Slots
Expansion Slots	1 AMR Slot 0 AGP Slot (integrated graphics) 3 PCI Slots 0 ISA Slots
AC'97	Unknown
BIOS	Unknown

Find it hard to believe that a processor as powerful as the present day Athlon is going to turn into a low-cost competitor to the Celeron? Does the Gigabyte GA-7VMM make it more believable?

While Gigabyte wouldn't reveal the chipset used on the GA-7VMM it does not appear to be a Slot-A version of VIA's upcoming KM133 chipset as we had originally thought. The KM133 comes with an integrated 3D AGP graphics core manufactured by S3 (no word on whether it's Savage4 or Savage 2000 based yet, as of Comdex '99 we were told that it would be Savage4 based). Rather, the GA-7VMM appears to use the KX133 chipset along with a separate dedicated graphics controller integrated onto the motherboard. No word on what that graphics chipset is at this point, however.

For performance users this won't be a huge product introduction, but to OEMs and those looking to build entry level systems in the future, boards like this highly integrated Gigabyte board will become quite popular.