News Release
VIA Launches VT8237R South Bridge, Driving Serial ATA
and RAID into the Mainstream Market
Boasting a broad array of advanced connectivity and
multimedia features, the VIA VT8237R redefines the South
Bridge role in PC architecture, bringing the latest
serial and storage technologies to a wide end-user audience
Taipei, Taiwan, 2 July 2003 - VIA Technologies, Inc,
a leading innovator and developer of silicon chip technologies
and PC platform solutions, today announced the introduction
of the advanced new VIA VT8237R South Bridge, which can
be coupled with the complete range of VIA core logic
North Bridges for ultimate performance and connectivity
across the full spectrum of Intel®, AMD and VIA
processor platforms. Featuring the world's first integrated
multi-configuration Serial ATA/RAID controller, the
VIA VT8237R will be key to driving the Serial ATA hard
disk drive technology mainstream and facilitating the
performance and data integrity benefits of RAID across
a wider platform.
"Serial ATA will be very important for the PC
industry, as it will have a huge impact in terms of
hard drive performance and platform and system level
design innovation," said Richard Brown, Associate
Vice President of Marketing, VIA Technologies, Inc.
"The sophisticated integration of both this and
multi-configuration Serial RAID within the advanced
VIA DriveStation Controller Suite of the VT8237R brings
these key technologies to the mainstream at minimal
extra cost, ensuring their much wider and much more
rapid adoption by the market."
The VIA VT8237R has been designed from the ground up
to meet the increasing demands of today's software while
providing all the necessary headroom for the data-intensive
applications of tomorrow. Previously confined to niche
enterprise and enthusiast segments, the VT8237R brings
to the mainstream for the first time the latest high
performance storage technologies, Serial ATA and RAID,
as well as a host of connectivity features such as USB
2.0 and 10/100 Mbps Fast Ethernet, as well as the Ultra
V-Link chipset interconnect with over 1GB/s of bandwidth.
"The VIA VT8237R extends the boundaries of South
Bridge connectivity and multimedia technology, providing
rich I/O functionality across the board of processor
platforms for complete flexibility and scalability for
our motherboard partners," said Chewei Lin, Vice
President of Product Marketing, VIA Technologies, Inc.
"At the same time, our V-MAP pin-compatibility
with the previous well-established generation of VIA
South Bridges slashes product development costs and
cycles, enabling a much faster time to market and giving
our customers that all-important competitive edge."
The VIA VT8237R comprises four distinct application
segments: the new VIA DriveStation™ Controller
Suite with the first native support for Serial ATA RAID,
the VIA Advanced Connectivity Suite that includes support
for eight USB 2.0 ports, the VIA Vinyl™ Multi-channel
Audio Suite for superlative onboard sound, and the VIA
Modular Architecture Platform (V-MAP) providing maximum
flexibility to motherboard manufacturers.
The VIA VT8237R South Bridge and the VIA DriveStation
Controller Suite
The VIA DriveStation Controller Suite in the VIA VT8237R
provides the most comprehensive set of high performance
integrated storage interface technologies available
on the market today. Combining the high speed 150MB/s
dual channel Serial ATA connections to the latest Hard
Disk Drives with the exceptionally fast storage disk
data transfer and optimal data integrity configurations
of Serial ATA/RAID through the user friendly V-RAID
Tool software interface, the VT8237R enables a whole
new end-user audience to benefit from the very latest
storage technologies, as well as offering full backwards
compatibility with the installed base of Parallel ATA
devices.
The VIA VT8237R South Bridge and the VIA Advanced
Connectivity Suite
The VIA VT8237R extends VIA's strategy of integrating
the latest appropriate connectivity technologies into
the South Bridge, with support for eight high speed
USB 2.0 ports at up to 480Mb/s transfer and enterprise
class 10/100Mb/s Fast Ethernet, as well as providing
established technologies such as the PCI interface and
LPC bus with the necessary support for all current peripherals.
The VIA VT8237R South Bridge and the VIA Vinyl Multi-channel
Audio Suite
As PC audio becomes an increasingly crucial factor
in purchase decisions, the VT8237R provides support for
the VIA Vinyl Multi-channel Audio Suite, delivering
a platform solution to enable the highest levels of
onboard audio performance. Enabling six-channel and
the only 8-channel onboard solution, with support for
24/96 resolutions, the VT8237R with VIA Vinyl Audio delivers
a full featured, rich, warm audio experience.
The VIA VT8237R South Bridge and the VIA Modular Architecture
Platform (V-MAP)
The unique VIA Modular Architecture Platform (V-MAP)
ensures that the VIA VT8237R is pin-compatible with the
previous generation of South Bridges, considerably reducing
design times and thus speeding products to market. The
VT8237R also features the new Ultra V-Link chipset interconnect
bus that delivers high data throughput of up to 1066GB/s
with low latency from the South Bridge to a wide array
of VIA North Bridges, including the very latest platforms.
The VIA Hyperion unified driver base is another major
feature of V-MAP, that allows end users to benefit from
seamless hardware and software compatibility and optimize
system performance.
Further information on the new VIA VT8237R may be found
on the VIA website here
A White Paper covering the principal
technologies of the VT8237R in further
detail may be downloaded from the
product webpage or here: www.via.com.tw/downloads/whitepapers/chipsets/southbridge/chipsets_vt8237.pdf.
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