VIA's P4X333 - If they only had a License

The First USB 2.0 South Bridge

Along with the new and improved North Bridge, VIA is hoping to lure the frightened motherboard manufacturers to their chipset using a new South Bridge. The VT8235 South Bridge is virtually identical to its predecessor, the 8233A with one major addition - USB 2.0 support.

The new South Bridge - We've shaded the V-Link interconnect in blue.

The integration of USB 2.0 into a VIA South Bridge makes a lot of sense but is a complete 180 from what VIA's position was at last year's Computex. During an interview with VIA's President, Wen-chi Chen, VIA took the position of supporting IEEE-1394 over USB 2.0. Luckily things have apparently changed and USB 2.0 has been integrated into the 8235 South Bridge. You can expect to find this South Bridge in all future VIA chipsets as well.

According to VIA, the USB 2.0 core was disabled in all reference boards that were sent out to the press. Citing driver issues for not enabling the functionality, VIA assured us that USB 2.0 is fully functional in all chipsets coming off the production line and the situation will be remedied immediately. Later this month Intel will release their ICH4 with USB 2.0 support, unfortunately ICH4 will only be paired with i845E and i845G chipsets at first.

Of course there is also an improved V-Link interface in the South Bridge to communicate with the new North Bridge at 533MB/s. Other than those two changes the South Bridge is identical to its predecessor, including its support for ATA/133.

What's in store for VIA South Bridges? The current goal is to integrate wireless networking technology onto the die of the South Bridge which would significantly enhance the value offered by the solution. However that is quite a while away considering that deciding on what standard to implement as well as getting the engineers to physically achieve that has yet to be accomplished.