VIA Esther, socket 370 friendly?

[razor1000]

I read on Chipgeek today that VIA will be having IBM fab their new CPU on a 90nm SOI process. Linkage

They note that it will hit 2Ghz.

Here are some other facts from older sources I have read:

1. VIA will NOT be making CPUs that are compatible with socket 478.
They agreed not to advance to any current Intel socket in order to get Intel to drop the copyright infringment suit against them for their P4 chipsets.

2. The next C3 chipset they will make will support 200Mhz FSB.
Their latest chipset for socket 370 (CLE266) supports PC2100, i.e. 133FSB. Logically the next step up would support PC2700 or PC3200, or 166 and 200Mhz FSB, respectively. The leaked info about VIA's plans for a video-game console noted that the chipset used will be called "CN400." From their prior naming scheme I would guess that this denotes PC3200 compatibility.

3. Although VIA sells a large quantity of embedded-style motherboards with the CPU soldered on, many customers use the C3 as a drop-in CPU replacement in their older socket 370 motherboards.
Compatibility problems with VIA's own boards is unlikely; they will be designed specifically for the Esther. But will VIA give up it's other potential customer-base by keeping the new CPU from being a drop-in replacement?


So here is what I an inferring: The new CPU will support 200Mhz FSB allowing it to run synchronously with their new chipset.

But this presents a problem: most socket 370 boards do not support FSB speeds above 133Mhz!

So my question is, is VIA going to build some kind of backwards compatability into the new CPU?
It's easy to just build a CPU/chipset that are matched, but they also sell PGA versions... if it only supports 200Mhz FSB, they will no longer be able to be drop-in replacements for P3s.

The technical problems here are clear; the lack of FSB support, and even the newest socket 370 boards only support multipliers up to maybe 14-15x (highest used multi being Tualatin Celerons at 14x100Mhz), while most Coppermine-supporting boards may top out at 8x.

I'm guessing VIA will make two CPUs available, one with 200Mhz FSB for their current chipsets and a 133Mhz FSB version as a drop-in replacement for older boards. But even then they will be confronted with multiplier problems, since to top out at 2Ghz using a 133Mhz FSB requires a multi of 15x. So perhaps they will do what AMD (IIRC) did in the early K6 days: produce a proc with dual-multis. AMD made one that could run at full speed at either 66 or 100Mhz FSB.

What does everyone think?

 

[razor1000]

Looks like the VIA "Glory" platform went public today: Linkage

The proc is 1.4Ghz. Any guesses if it's a super-Nehemiah or an early Esther?

I also meant to mention the possiblity of halved multis on the proc. Like if the proc sees a 4 it interprets it as an 8, allowing it to get up higher than what the board supports. I think Cyrix or AMD did something like that back in the day, also.

 

[leukotriene]

What does everyone think?

IIRC, when the C3 first came out it was capable of running in both 133 and 100MHz FSB boards at full clock speed because the mutliplier was unlocked. It's quite likely they will do this again with the Esther.

edit: It's very interesting that the CN400 has it's own integrated video, but the Deltachrome will be an AGP card add-on in the console itself (perhaps like some of those "AGP" Xabre motherboards that had their own frambuffer RAM onboard, non-UMA) .