VIA starts shipping Athlon chipset

VIA Technologies Wednesday announced it has begun volume shipments of its Apollo KX133 chipset, optimised for AMD's Athlon processor.

Taiwan's VIA also builds the only PC133 chipset for Intel processors. Intel is expected to begin sampling its Solano PC133 chipset this month. Intel's offering will begin production in the second quarter and will compete with VIA's chipsets for both Intel and AMD processors.

"With its enhanced features such as support for AGP 4x and PC133, the VIA Apollo KX133 has been designed to allow users to take full advantage of the industry-leading performance of the AMD Athlon processor," VIA said in a statement.

VIA said it is shipping the chipset to more than 20 manufacturers. The Apollo KX133 is manufactured to a .35 micron, three-metal layer process, and is priced at $34 (about £21) in OEM volumes.

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