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Introduction.Progress is a central aspect of PC hardware since IBM invented the original PC back in 1981. The past twenty years have seen PC hardware develop in every respect, ranging from CPU power and architecture, memory design and amount, faster graphics and so on. As with the entire development of the PC, each development builds upon existing architectures or platforms. Rarely have there been massive leaps in overall PC design (the move from 16 bit to 32 bit computing with the i386 probably being the single largest leap to date), as each new development in memory or CPU technology is usually paired at some point with an existing CPU or memory architecture. In line with the incremental nature of PC Hardware development has been the introduction of DDR (Double Data Rate) SDRAM. Built upon existing SDRAM memory technology, DDR SDRAM allows for reading and writing to memory to happen at the same time, thus increasing its bandwidth. Key to championing this new memory standard is Taiwanese chipset manufacturer, VIA who has had considerable success with PC-133 SDRAM compatible chipsets such as the Apollo Pro133A and the KT133. With the advent of DDR SDRAM, VIA saw the opportunity to release its first DDR compatible chipset, the Apollo Pro266. Interestingly VIA saw the opportunity to release the Apollo Pro266, designed to support the Intel Pentium III and Celeron processor lines just as Intel is beginning to switch its processor strategy towards the new Pentium 4 processor. Thus VIA only has a limited time span with which to promote its Apollo Pro266 as one of its market leading chipsets before it will have to give way to Pentium 4 compatible products in the VIA product range (Intel licence permitting). Whilst though Intel is looking to transition its processor line away from the Pentium III, there will though be a good few months of front line product sales for the Apollo Pro266 and in this light many motherboard manufacturers have seen fit to produce boards based upon the new chipset. AOpen have decided to build boards based upon the Apollo Pro266 chipset, and the first offering comes in the form of the AX37 Pro. Like previous AOpen Socket 370 boards such as the superb AX3S Pro and AX34 Pro II, the AX37 Pro seeks to build upon AOpen’s proven track record of building fast, but extremely stable Socket 370 boards. Like other AOpen boards, the AX37 Pro is designed with some visual flair as it makes use of a rather attractive black PCB as was seen with the AX34 Pro II. Overall, the AX37 Pro offered to be a rather interesting board for test, as it brought with it the prospect of improved performance due to DDR SDRAM, whilst at the same time the challenge of maintaining Aopen’s excellent reputation for reliability. To see how the AX37 Pro fared, read on: VIA Apollo Pro266.The Apollo Pro266 can be viewed as the latest development of VIA’s Apollo Pro range of Pentium II and III chipsets which have been in production for some years. Essentially the Pro266 builds upon the highly successful Pro133A as it adds support for PC-1600 or PC-2100 DDR SDRAM on top of existing support for PC-133 (and older PC-66 & PC-100 SDRAM). With the inclusion of DDR SDRAM the memory support limit of the Pro266 has risen to 3 GB of memory which indicates support for 1 GB DIMM modules. Like the Apollo Pro133A, the Pro266 also offers support for AGP 4X, Ultra ATA-100 Hard Disks and 133 MHz Front Side Bus operation.
Like the Apollo Pro133A, the Pro266 comprises a classic North and South Bridge chipset layout. New to the chipset combination is the VT8633 North
Bridge controller which is paired to the VT8233 South Bridge controller.
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