SIS Desktop Chipset Road Map for 2004

Fresh from testing the capabilities of the SIS 655FX chipset, PCstats takes an in depth look at the next four quarters of chipsets that are scheduled to be released by SIS.

Not only do these road maps give us insight into upcoming SIS products and technologies, but they also shed some light as to what we can expect from both AMD and Intel; each typically very secretive when it comes to the details of their unreleased processors.

On the rough, while SIS released the 655TX and 655FX already, the chipsets are just starting to make their way into mainboards, such as the Gigabyte GA-8S655FX Ultra. Performance of the 655FX has been remarkable considering that SIS are rarely known for producing performance core logic, but as it stands the 655FX matches the i865PE, and comes very close to the i875P in several benchmarks.

The upcoming SIS659 brings RDRAM back into the equation, and four channel RDRAM no less.

The SIS662 will be exciting if it keeps up the performance curve, for it is the first SIS chipset to introduce DDR2 and PCI-Express, and should be released in the first quarter of 2004.

After that we can expect to see the SIS965/966 southbridge which are both PCI-express solutions. Both SIS' Intel and AMD solutions take advantage of 'Hyperstreaming' technology, and that includes both K7 and K8 Athlon's.

SIS' Intel Chipsets: Interesting things begin to develop for SIS' chipsets as we near mid-2004, and while chipsets are projected to support DDR2-667 and DDR2-800, there is nothing listed for DDR2-533.

SIS 648FX SIS 648 SIS 661FX SIS 655FX SIS 655TX SIS R658 SIS R659 SIS 656 SIS 662 SIS 656FX Class main. main. value perf. perf. main. perf. perf. main. perf. Release Q4'03 Q4'03 Q4'03 Oct '03 Oct '03 Q4'03 Nov '03 Mar '04 Jun '04 Q4 '04 DDR Memory DDR400 DDR333 DDR400 DDR400 DDR400 - - DDR400 DDR400 - DDR-2 Memory - - - - - - - DDR2-667 DDR2-667 DDR2-800 ECC - - - - - ECC - ECC - - RDRAM Memory - - - - - 2-ch. PC1066 16dx2 4-ch. PC1200 16dx2 - - - AGP AGP8x AGP8x AGP8x AGP8x AGP8x AGP8x AGP8x - - - PCI Express x16 - - - - - - - PCI Express x16 PCI Express x16 PCI Express x16 Graphics - - Real256E GFX - - - - - DX9 SiS GFX - CPU P4 HT P4 HT P4 HT P4 HT P4 HT P4 HT P4 HT P4 HT P4 HT P4 HT Front Side Bus 800MHz 533MHz 800MHz 800MHz 800MHz 533MHz 800MHz 800MHz 800MHz 800MHz Hyperstreaming Hyper-streaming Engine - Hyper-streaming Engine Hyper-streaming Engine Advanced Hyper-streaming Engine Hyper-streaming Engine Advanced Hyper-streaming Engine Advanced Hyper-streaming Engine Hyper-streaming Engine Advanced Hyper-streaming Engine

Your favorite AGP videocard becomes obsolete as of the summer of 2004, when PCI Express-x16 hits the market, barring any delays of course. Thus far, only ATI have demonstrated a working videocard based on this new standard.