Integrated Video Chipset Roundup - January 2001

Socket370 Solutions: ALi's Aladdin TNT2

As one may suspect by the name of this Socket370 chipset, ALi's Aladdin TNT2 offers an integrated NVIDIA TNT2 graphics controller on ALi's M1621 northbridge. This northbridge supports bus frequencies of 66, 100, and 133MHz but does not feature support for an external AGP 4X slot. The most common south bridge to be paired with the M1621 northbridge is ALI's M1535D which features support for up to 4 USB ports and an ATA/66 IDE controller.

The Aladdin TNT2 offers support for both a local frame buffer as well as unified memory mode. This means that it is up to the board manufacturer to choose if they include the external local frame buffer, from 4 to 32MB, or not. Since in local frame buffer mode the data bus is free of any traffic, this should aid in speed. However, once the local frame buffer is full, the Aladdin TNT2 will resort to the system memory (and bus) for frame buffer space.

The interface to the local frame buffer is 64-bits wide and will most likely operate at 150MHz using 7.0 ns memory. This leaves the local frame buffer with 1.2GB/s of memory bandwidth, all to itself. When operating in unified memory mode, the Aladdin TNT2 chipset features the same 800MB/s or 1.06GB/s of memory bandwidth encountered in all unified memory solutions, with the bandwidth being split between the graphics controller and other functions of the motherboard.

Click to Enlarge

Socket370 Solutions: SiS' 630S

SiS' integrated solution for the Socket370 platform is their S630S chip. The S630S features the same graphics controller as the Slot-A SiS 730S chipset, meaning that it also uses the SiS 300 graphics controller. Just as in the 730S chipset, the SiS 300 graphics controller features hardware motion compensation and iDCT support and uses the unified memory architecture for frame buffer space. Also supported is an external AGP 4X slot.

As expected, the S630S chipset features bus speed support of 66, 100, and 133MHz. In addition, the 630S features a similar design to the 730S, having not only an integrated graphics controller but also an integrated south bridge. The south bridge contains an ATA/100 controller (although it does not feature the same direct connection that the 730S contains), as well as an AC97 controller, integrated ethernet and ACR card support.

Click to Enlarge

Socket370 Solutions: VIA's PM133

Once again, VIA takes advantage of their S3 connections by incorporating the ProSavage chip in the PM133. This incarnation of the ProSavage graphics controller is identical to the one used in the KM133, meaning it uses the same unified memory design.

The PM133 is simply a VIA Apollo Pro133A northbridge that includes an integrated ProSavage graphics controller. This means that the chipset offers supported bus speeds up to 133MHz and offers support for an external AGP 4X video card. The most common south bridge that will be used with the PM133 is either the 686A or 686B chips, meaning that the same features are supported in this platform as were supported in the KM133 Socket-A platform.

Click to Enlarge