<i>The full-spec maximum bus width and frequency of the HyperTransport link between an AMD64 processors and the north bridge of the chipset is 16-bits at a frequency of 1.6GHz. With the massive data loads conveyed by a 16-bit/1.6GHz HyperTransport bus, the propensity for bus noise and signal interference between the processor and chipset increases significantly, thereby decreasing signal integrity to unmanageable levels. To deal with the high level of signal interference, other chipset vendors have had to reduce the data load of the HyperTransport bus, either through a reduction in bus speed from 1.6GHz to 1.2GHz, or by reducing the size of data packages from 16 bits to 8 bits.  
 
VIA’s Hyper8™ technology eliminates signal interference on the HyperTransport bus to ensure maximum signal quality, removing the need to scale down bus speed or data package size. This enables a full-spec 16-bit/1.6GHz link between processor and chipset and the only true implementation of the HyperTransport bus available on the AMD64 platform today, allowing AMD64 processor based systems to achieve their full performance potential.  
</i>
 
It's just the begining...
 
<A HREF="http://www.viaarena.com/?PageID=336" target="_new">VIAARENA</A>
 
 
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If you go to work and your name is on the door, you're rich. If your name is on your desk, you're middle class. If your name is on your shirt, you're poor!

yep! more VIA chipsets.
 
-J<font color=red>//\</font color=red>ECOR™ -
-J<font color=purple>//\</font color=purple>ECOR™ -

Likely more mediocre Via chipsets that claim superiority for one reason or another and yet when all is said and done somehow manage to still underperform compared to nVidia chipsets.
 
<font color=blue>If you look <font color=purple>The Devil</font color=purple><font color=red>®</font color=red> straight in the eye and only see yourself then you must be standing in front of a mirror.</font color=blue>

Lets see what the Nforce 3 does. VIA is only getting Nforces leavings now days I would imagine.
 
Well, I didn't think that was gonna happen!!!

Well technically it's more like Via is sharing the leavings from the Intel and nVidia majority with other dink players like SiS and ALi, but yeah, something like that.  
 
<font color=blue>If you look <font color=purple>The Devil</font color=purple><font color=red>®</font color=red> straight in the eye and only see yourself then you must be standing in front of a mirror.</font color=blue>

Nvidia has really changed the landscape in the last little while that's for sure. Didn't think about Intel, but your right. I also wonder if that's why Nvidias video cards are in the shape they're in. I hope that they keep it up with their chip sets though & not let them go for the sake of the vid cards. So far they aren't showing that they can do both well. Still a Nvidia fan except not for the vid cards so much anymore. LOL
 
Well, I didn't think that was gonna happen!!!

Well, I think The Nforce2 chipset has shown they have some serious talent somewhere..  
 
I think they were just a bit unlucky with the Geforce FX cores really, I think they expected them to perform much better than they did, and by the time they knew, it was too late...
 
Plus they probably didn't expect ATI to kick them in the balls so completely... I'd almost feel sorry for them, if they hadn't then cheated in benchmarks etc.
 
I'll be interested in what the next generation of Vid Cards are like (DirectX 10 I guess).. they might correct their mistakes..
 
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The end is nigh.. (For this post at least)

I'm hoping so myself. My next vid card will be when Doom 3 comes out. So I've given them some time to redeem themselves, other wise it will be ATI next time. Believe me it will be my first if it goes that way.
 
Well, I didn't think that was gonna happen!!!

I agree.  I think nVidia spread their techies and/or money a bit too thin when they moved to dominantly to chipset (and sound chip) development.  They've definately got potential, but I can't help but feel that they need to invest more into R&D still to bring their graphics chip tech back to the same pace that it was before.  Of course, then again maybe it might not have been so lame if they'd just stuck to 24-bit color.
 
<font color=blue>If you look <font color=purple>The Devil</font color=purple><font color=red>®</font color=red> straight in the eye and only see yourself then you must be standing in front of a mirror.</font color=blue>

nVidia has LOTS of money, having both chipsets and video chips means they should be able to have developers for BOTH, since they make money on both.  I LOVE the position they are in right now, FIGHTING to catch up with ATI and TROMPING on VIA.  Now if SiS could just get into the ring for a TAG TEAM against VIA.
 
nVidia's hold on the graphics chip market is still to strong, they should stay barely behind another year, just so ATI can catch up on sales, and then release a trump card that has the two swaping the championship title every release.
 
Also, nVidia should spread their chipset department a wee bit thinner by offering a dedicated soundcard.  Something 2 years ahead of their current sound solution.  Something to slap the smile off of Creative's face.
 
There are TWO companies in this industry that are really easy for me to hate, Creative and VIA.
 
What would be ideal is if nVidia could get around the licensing to release A3D 2.0 supporting hardware.  And then take that to the next level.  I don't think the license issue would be so hard to work around because A3D 2.0 IS hardware, but the software supporting it is already IN games, they should be able to "reverse engineer" the software and come up with completely new hardware to support it.
 
<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

I never said that they didn't have lots.  Just that they're spreading it too thin when it comes to R&D.  Even the company that I work for right now is the same.  They rake in tons of cash be selling products in a highly competetive technology market, but they wouldn't dare actually spend more on R&D.  I think it's done that way to make the stock analysts happy.  :\
 

Well no doubt they have developers for both.  The real question is do they have <i>enough</i> engineers to develop both properly?  I'm guessing not.
 

I have to say that it is nice that ATI is giving them serious competition in the graphics department.  Companies (3DFX) that get too complacant with their position are rather ... annoying.  I was starting to fear that nVidia was headed that route.  Heh heh.  Nothing to fear now!  
 
And I love the tromping, stomping, and squishing into pulp of VIA.  Gods I hate VIA.  Oh sure, they've improved (supposedly) and I could give them another chance, but why bother?  Heh heh.  So many other <i>better</i> choices...
 

I don't know.  I'm not very fond of SiS.  (Or ALi for that matter.)  I think I'd be happier with a completely different company (Micron?) coming out of nowhere with an unexpected but great product to do that than with SiS doing that.  But beggars can't be choosers.  If SiS does it, I won't really complain.
 

I can't really agree.  A clear market leader is better for standardization, and what the graphics market <i>really</i> needs are some f-ing standards.  DirectX compatability just isn't cutting it (and OpenGL hasn't cut it in a long time), especially not with programmable vertex and pixel shaders and whatnot.  There are just too many optimizations that have to be made company-specific if not card-specific.  It's pathetic.  It's almost as bad as the days when 3D graphics were just emerging.  And it's only gotten this bad again because there is such a close gap between nVidia and ATI in performance.  I want to see good competition, but I also want to see a clear dominant market leader just so we can get some darned standardization in the graphics market again.
 

That would <i>definately</i> be sweet.  From an audio perspective I could only be happier if I could find a bloody portable MP3 player with an internal hard drive, a smartcard reader, <i>and</i> a CD player.  It doesn't have to be super-tiny, just small enough to be able to drag between work and home <i>and</i> use in the car.  Short of that, an nVidia PCI audio card that trounces Creative's best would rock.
 

I don't mind Creative.  Sure they're overbearing if not downright hostile in the market, but I've never had a problem with any of their products and neither have any of my family or friends.  I absolutely adored my SB AWE32 for my old Pentium133.  That card just rocked.  And the Audigy2 is nice.  My friend loves his and one day I might even buy one myself.  I don't love Creative, but I don't hate them.  VIA however I hate.  Too many bad VIA experiences (and all from just one product) to like anything about the company.
 

Well since the software API is pretty accessible (if it wasn't, no one could program for it) then it probably wouldn't be too hard to design hardware that is compatible.  I mean it'd still be hard, but not <i>that</i> hard, you know?  I think it's the licensing and legal issues that are the concern.  Of course if they could just start a new standard or find an existing one to use or extend without pissing off Creative then they could do just as well for themselves.  They would really have to do something amazing and innovative in the audio world though to give Creative a good smack.  I'm not sure if 3D audio is enough though.
 
And man I'd really love to see a revival of MIDI.  Why the heck don't we have 3D positional MIDI that sounds like the real thing yet?  Throw into the file format the option for X number of matching vocal tracks in a compression format specifically optimized for human voice.  That'd rock for instrumental game music tracks and probably beat the heck out of redbook audio or MP3.  Or maybe I'm just nuts.
 
Hmm ... speaking of nuts, hardware voice synthesis with programable tone ranges to make your audio card litterally sing, and so well that you couldn't even distinguish it from a real human's voice.  (Or at least so close that you wouldn't care.)  That'd be cool.  That'd make MIDI really funky if you could combine the two.  Imagine a completely virtual music synthesis so good that it beat CD quality recordings of real songs.
 
Yep.  I'm nuts.
 
<pre><A HREF="http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=20030905" target="_new"><font color=black>People don't understand how hard being a dark god can be. - Hastur</font color=black></A></pre><p>