User manual VIA PL133 BROCHURE

[. . . ] 7 Enabling VIA Vinyl Audio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 VIA Vinyl Gold Audio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 VIA DriveStation Controller Suite . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 VIA DriveStation Serial ATA Controller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 VIA DriveStation V-RAID Controller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 VIA Advanced Connectivity Suite. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [. . . ] Third party brands and names are the property of their respective owner. VIA PL133 Intuitive Technologies Powering the Pentium 4 Platform DualStream64 Memory Controller Harnessing revolutionary new intuitive technologies, the VIA DualStream64 memory controller enables lightning fast access to system memory and optimum system performance through an enhanced data prefetch protocol. Further performance enhancements include improved memory branch prediction, utilizing a larger on-chip branch table, and tighter read/write turnaround for significantly improved clock timings. With an asynchronous bus design, the PL133 allows maximum system flexibility and optimization options, as demanded by today's power users. Figure 2 below shows the SiSoft Sandra benchmark for testing the memory bandwidth performance of competing platforms; the VIA PL133 clearly enjoys a significant memory bandwidth boost from DualStream64's intuitive technologies, through the expanded array of prefetch buffers, superior data prediction technology and lower latency clock cycles. Figure 2: Memory Bandwidth Performance: SiSoft Sandra Benchmark 5 Copyright © VIA Technologies, Inc, 2003. Third party brands and names are the property of their respective owner. VIA PL133 Intuitive Technologies Powering the Pentium 4 Platform Asynchronous Bus Architecture The PL133 employs an asynchronous bus architecture, enabling power users to fully optimize system performance and flexibility through the ability to manipulate the FSB, AGP, and memory bus speeds independently. 800MHZ Front Side Bus 800MHz Front Side Bus and HyperThreading enabled, the PL133 is optimized for today's latest generation high performance Intel Pentium 4 processors. AGP 8X The PL133 high bandwidth AGP 8X port allows users access to the latest in graphics card technology, providing a full 2. 1 gigabytes per second (GB/s) data bandwidth for realistic 3D graphics environments and a new realm of PC gaming. Ultra V-Link Interconnect The PL133 features the new Ultra V-Link North/South Bridge interconnect, delivering aggregate data throughput speeds of up to 1066MB/s. 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 I/O traffic generated from ever increasing processor 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 highspeed USB2. 0 and 1394 peripherals. 6 Copyright © VIA Technologies, Inc, 2003. Third party brands and names are the property of their respective owner. VIA PL133 Intuitive Technologies Powering the Pentium 4 Platform VIA VT8237 South Bridge Featuring the VIA DriveStationTM Controller Suite, the VIA VT8237 South Bridge provides the most comprehensive high-performance integrated storage interface technologies available on the market today. It not only enables high-speed 150MB/s dual channel connections to new generation Serial ATA Hard Drives while retaining support for today's Parallel ATA-133 devices, but also combines exceptionally fast disk data transfer rates and optimal data integrity with easy installation and manageability through V-RAID, the first native RAID controller integrated into a South Bridge supporting multiple RAID configurations. VIA DriveStation Serial ATA Controller With the integrated VIA DriveStation Dual Channel Serial ATA controller, the VT8237 South Bridge delivers a number of significant benefits to mainstream PC users: · Superior Hard Disk Drive Performance · Quick and Easy Set-Up · Hot Plug Capabilities · SATALite Interface VIA DriveStation Serial ATA Controller Performance By integrating the Serial ATA controller in the South Bridge, the VT8237 not only delivers superior data transfer rates of up to 150 MB/s per SATA device compared to a maximum of 133MB/s for Parallel ATA devices, but also eliminates the 132MB/s bottleneck on the PCI bus that can significantly inhibit the performance of discrete Serial ATA controllers. Figure 6 shows the integrated VIA DriveStation Serial ATA Controller delivering an increase of over 25% in data transfer speeds compared to a discrete Promise PDC20376 Serial ATA controller, using the popular HD Tach Burst Speed benchmark over a single Serial ATA drive. It enables users to benefit from all the enhanced performance and rock solid data security benefits of a high-end RAID system, but without the complicated setup procedures that are normally found in server and workstation products and at a much more affordable price. 11 Copyright © VIA Technologies, Inc, 2003. Third party brands and names are the property of their respective owner. VIA PL133 Intuitive Technologies Powering the Pentium 4 Platform With digital media applications such as digital video creation and editing, and digital audio storage and playback becoming increasingly popular, the demands on hard disk drive throughput are growing at a dramatic rate. But although memory, processor, and Front Side Bus technologies have improved in recent years, significantly enhancing the performance of desktop systems, storage performance has not scaled at the same rate. V-RAID overcomes this bottleneck by delivering a significant boost in desktop storage performance. V-RAID is the first native RAID controller to support a complete range of RAID Level 0, RAID Level 1, RAID Level 0+11, and JBOD configurations (shown in Table 1), giving the user maximum flexibility in tuning their disk array to achieve the optimum balance of performance and data integrity depending on their requirements. Table 1: RAID Configurations Supported by V-RAID RAID Level 0 1 0+1 1 Effect Striping Mirroring Mirroring & Striping None Capacity 100 % 50 % 50 % 100 % Performance High Medium/High High Normal Fault Tolerance Low High High Low JBOD Based on VIA's ground breaking DriveThruTM technology, V-RAID also enables "on-thefly" upgrades to RAID configurations, and an exceptionally user friendly software interface for V-RAID installation and management. V-RAID Performance V-RAID optimizes hard disk data transfer rates by utilizing the integrated VIA DriveStation Dual Channel Serial ATA Controller to deliver a maximum theoretical transfer rate of 300MB/s under a RAID Level 0 configuration. Since V-RAID is integrated into the VT8237 South Bridge, as opposed to implementing a discrete RAID controller on the PCI bus that has a shared 132MB/s peak bandwidth limitation, VRAID is the only solution available that can deliver the full benefit of Serial ATA RAID without having to adopt expensive server/workstation platforms such as PCI-X or PCI Express. [. . . ] The VT8237 includes eight function ports featuring integrated physical layer transceivers, all supporting a full range of USB 2. 0 and USB1. 1 devices, and achieving data transfer rates of up to 480Mb/s. USB enables plug'n'play, and supports isochronous data transfers. Peripherals can be inserted into the system with driver support for many user classes such as external storage. The controller also implements legacy keyboard and mouse support so that legacy software can run transparently in a non-USB-aware OS environment. [. . . ]