Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/2003/09/09/sis_details_pentium_m_support/

SiS details Pentium M support

We got a licence and we're going to use it

By Tony Smith

Posted in Channel, 9th September 2003 09:08 GMT

Having yesterday announced that it has licensed Intel's Pentium M, chipset maker SiS today unveiled a pair of products that will support the mobile microprocessor.

The SiS648MX and SiS661MX are discrete and integrated parts, respectively. Both work with the company's SiS162 802.11b chipset.

The 648MX provides a 400MHz effective bit rate frontside bus, 266-400MHz DDR SDRAM support and an AGP 8x connection to a separate graphics chipset. The chipset's South Bridge, the SiS964, reads more like a desktop part than a mobile-oriented device, offering a dual-channel ATA-133 bus; two independent Serial ATA buses; RAID 0, 1 and JBOD; support for up to eight USB 2.0 ports; 56Kbps modem and 10/100Mbps Ethernet; and Dolby 5.1-compatible surround sound.

The 661MX also support 266-400MHz DDR, but integrates SiS' Real256E graphics engine, using part of the main memory for graphics buffers, but at full DDR speed rather than AGP 8x. The graphics component also drives LCD, CRT or TV (any two of which can operate simultaneously) at up to 1600 x 1200.

The chipset's SiS963 South Bridge provides two parallel ATA buses, support for up to six USB 2.0 ports, a 1394 connector (unlike the SiS648MX's South Bridge), 56Kbps modem and 10/100Mbps Ethernet.

SiS said both chipsets will go into volume production in Q4, with products based on them shipping early next year. That's around the time that Intel's next-generation Pentium M, codenamed 'Dothan', is due to ship in volume, and corporates are expected to begin replacing pre-Y2K systems, say analysts. In addition to upgrading old notebooks, a good proportion of desktops are likely to be superseded with mobile machines, it is thought. ®