Intel are undisputedly the number 1 chipset maker when it comes to sales of chipsets. It would not be unreasonable to guess that around 75 to 80% of all PC's today have an Intel chipset located on their motherboard. What of the rivals though? Well, Taiwanese company VIA are posing a considerable challenge with their new Apollo Pro+ and Apollo Pro 133 chipsets which threaten Intel's staple BX and i820 chipset lines. We must not forget though, that while VIA are battling Intel in the Slot 1/Socket 370 market, VIA really made their name towards the end of Socket 7 and very much so with its sucessor, Super Socket 7.

VIA made a big name for themselves in the Super Socket 7 market in the summer of 1998 with the release of the MVP3. Essentially a development of VP3, the MVP3 moved the supposedly defunct Socket 7 format into the position of a direct rival to Slot 1. Although Super Socket 7 has had a chequered history, it must be commended for the fine job it has done in keeping AMD in the market as a credible rival to chip giant Intel.

VIA MVP3, what does it do?

VIA's MVP3 (and its forebear the VP3) chipset brought a number of features that had only ever really been considered the preserve of the then high end Intel LX and BX chipsets. The MVP3 took the ageing Socket 7 architechture and added features such as AGP (Accelerated Graphics Port) 1.0, PC-100 SDRAM and DDR SDRAM on top of existing SDRAM and EDO support. There is also support for USB and ACPI. The MVP3 also added support for the 100 MHz Front Side Bus which was central to Super Socket 7s success.

The addition of the 100 MHz bus was what made the MVP3 and other Super Socket 7 chipsets (such as the ALi Aladdin 5) stand out from the crowd of Socket 7 chipsets. Like its Slot 1 rival the BX chipset, the MVP3 implemented a proper AGP clock divider of 2/3 when running the 100 MHz bus in order to keep AGP display cards running at a proper 66 MHz. Bus speeds officially supported by the MVP3 are 66, 75, 83 and 100 MHz, although most Super Socket 7 motherboards have had to implement a 95 MHz bus speed in order to run certain AMD K6-2 processors. Recently, many Super Socket 7 boards have appeared with bus speeds of 112, 124 and 133 MHz although they are not officially supported by the MVP3 chipset.

The MVP3 can support level 2 cache (level 3 for AMD K6 III processors) ranging from 512 Kb to 2 Mb in size. This cache, like all Socket 7 motherboards, is mounted on the motherboard itself.

The MVP3 chipset is made up of the VT82C598AT North Bridge controller and the VT82C586B South Bridge controller which offers U/DMA 33 support and PC97 compliance. Moany MVP3 motherboards are made up of this combination of chips, although some newer Super Socket 7 boards such as the Tyan S1598 Trinity are now equipped with the VT82C686A Super South Bridge controller which offers new features such as U/DMA 66 support.

The MVP3 is currently in production.

MVP3 in use.