VIA Pushes DDR

National Software Testing Labs just got done testing 20 motherboards and notebooks using VIA's DDR chipset. All testing was conducted at NSTL's Taiwan facility, NSTL/Asia-Pacific. Motherboard manufacturers participating in the program included ABIT, Chaintech, GVC, Aopen, DFI, Nexcom, BIOSTAR, ECS, and Shuttle. VIA says its chipsets double the clock frequency rate, enabling operation speeds beyond 100MHz. VIA also says that it will eventually engineer DDR chipsets with operating speeds up to 250MHz, to achieve transfer rates of 2.4GB/s. NSTL tests include a BIOS function and system diagnostics test, benchmark utilities test, Microsoft Windows ME compatibility test (under ACPI), Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional compatibility test (under ACPI), REDHAT Linux compatibility test, and a multimedia test. NSTL also tested 80 different types of business and game applications, hardware devices and peripherals, networks (TCP/IP - NetBEUI - IPX/SPX), and multimedia on the boards. VIA's DDR chipsets fit into a standard 168-pin DIMM socket. While the results of the tests are not yet posted, keep an eye on NTSL's website if you're interested in whether VIA passed muster.