Written By:
Date Posted: April 1, 2002

The KT266A

Like the KT133A was to the KT133, the KT266A is an upgrade to the KT266. Here are more official specifications...

Supports AMD Duron" and Athlon" Socket A processors
200/266MHz FSB settings
Support for AGP 2X/4X
Supports up to 4.0GB DDR200/266 SDRAM as well as PC100/133 SDRAM and Virtual Channel memory
266MB/sec high bandwidth North/South Bridge V-Link
Support for Advanced Communications Riser (ACR) Card Standard
Integrated 6 channel AC-97 Audio
Integrated MC-97 Modem
Integrated 10/100 BaseT Ethernet and 1/10Mb HomePNA controller
Support for ATA 33/66/100
6 USB ports, UHCI compliant
Advanced power management capabilities including ACPI/OnNow and AMD's PowerNow"
552-pin BGA VT8366A North Bridge
376-pin BGA VT8233 South Bridge

Of course, the most important consumer features are the Athlon 200/266 Front Side Bus, and DDR Ram support. As explained on the first page, the V-Link is a proprietary link between the Northbridge and Southbridge, bypassing the PCI bus. At 266MHz, it's double the speed as well. The KT266A is pin compatible with the KT266, so it's a simple upgrade for manufacturers to replace their KT266 motherboards with the newer chipset. Unfortunently for the end-user, this is done at the factory, and you cannot do this yourself.

VIA's technology can be explained in their block diagram...

Although the VT8233 Southbridge supports integrated Ethernet, our board did not include it, since it'll be up to manufacturers what supported features they should add.

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