VIA Advanced Connectivity Suite

The VIA DriveStation™ Advanced Suite in the VIA VT8251 offers a host of high-bandwidth network and peripheral connectivity options, including support for two PCI Express x1 connections, up to eight high-speed USB 2.0 ports, high-throughput Ethernet, and high speed flexible connections to a wide range of VIA North Bridge solutions.

PCI Express
The VIA VT8251 South Bridge integrates PCI Express connectivity offering a total of 500Mb/s of bandwidth for the latest peripheral devices. PCI Express is a next generation standard intended to replace existing PCI and AGP connections. The PCI Express ports in the VIA VT8251 can be configured in as two PCI Express x1 connections or a single PCI Express x2 connection. Through the PCI Express connectivity VIA chipsets can be paired with the latest third party PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet solutions for unparalled networking access. Other leading PCI Express peripherals include the latest HDTV tuner cards and high fidelity audio devices.

The flexibe nature of the V-MAP Express architecture also brings PCI Express connectivity to mature VIA chipset-based platforms. The pin-compatible design approach of V-MAP Express allows the VT8251 South Bridge to be paired with mature VIA North Bridges, such as the VIA K8M800/K8T800/K8T800 Pro for the AMD Athlon 64 platform, and the VIA PM800/PT800/PT880 for the Intel platform. In combination with the VT8251 South Bridge, these platforms can support the latest PCI Express peripheral devices.

USB 2.0
The VT8251 enhances connectivity options with its support for eight high-speed USB2.0 ports, delivering forty times the bandwidth of USB 1.1. The VT8251 includes four root hubs with eight function ports featuring integrated physical layer transceivers. All eight ports support a full range of USB 2.0 and USB1.1 devices, and achieve data transfer rates of up to 480Mb/s. The USB controller allows hot plug and play and isochronous peripherals to be inserted into the system with universal driver support. The controller also implements legacy keyboard and mouse support so legacy software can run transparently in a non-USB-aware OS environment.

Network Controller
The VT8251 features industrial strength networking capabilities courtesy of an integrated VIA IEEE 802.3 compliant 10/100Mb/s 32-bit PCI bus master Ethernet MAC with standard MII interface to an external PHYceiver. With native driver support ensuring instant connectivity, the reliable Fast Ethernet controller is ideal for both enterprise class and home networking applications.

PCI Interface & LPC Bus
Featuring a PCI 2.2 compliant PCI controller, the VT8251 offers support for up to six PCI masters, and supports a full range of legacy controllers, including Serial and Parallel ports, Keyboard and PS2 mouse.

Ultra V-Link Bus
The VT8251 features the new Ultra V-Link bus, a 16-bit 66MHz client interface that delivers data throughput speeds of up to 1066MB/s from the South Bridge to the next generation of high performance VIA North Bridge solutions, including the PT800, PT880, PM800, and PM880, as shown in Figure 10 below. The Ultra V-Link bus delivers the necessary bandwidth and low latency required by today’s increasingly demanding multimedia applications, and also provides headroom for ever increasing CPU and memory bus speeds. Not only does Ultra V-Link speed up data transfer rates, it also addresses potential bottlenecks on the South Bridge that may be created by the growing use of high-speed USB2.0 and 1394 peripherals.

VIA V-MAP Architecture
As an integral component of VIA’s unique V-MAP (VIA Modular Architecture Platform) Architecture, the VIA VT8251 has been designed to be fully compatible with a complete range of current and future VIA North Bridge designs across all the major Intel Pentium 4, Intel Celeron, AMD Athlon XP, AMD Opteron, VIA C7, and VIA C3/Eden ESP processors.

Through this approach, OEMs and motherboard vendors can minimize development costs and speed up time to market by consolidating their product lines on a standard but scalable platform that enables them to meet the diverse needs of multiple market segments through the rapid integration of different feature sets. As an added benefit, V-MAP also allows a common VIA Hyperion driver base that optimizes system performance while maintaining full stability and compatibility and facilitates technical support.