[tcsenter]

Where is the KT/KM960 chipset for AM2+?

VIA has settled for the value segment. This means people who buy a motherboard for Sempron64 to mid-range X2, not flagship parts.

All current AMD64 chipsets can support AM2+ albiet @ HT 2.0, only the motherboard design need be changed. K8T890 and K8M890 when used with VT8237S have PCI Express x16, 2 x PCI Express x1, SATA 3Gbps, and HD Audio, which is all that Kx960 was slated to have but with support for AHCI and integrated Gigabit MAC. Memory support is defined by the AMD64 CPU, so that is not a chipset issue.

VIA could stand to refresh its P4M900 and PT890 to support DDR2-800 (or even DDR2-1066), 1333MHz FSB, and 45nm CPUs, but its AMD chipsets are not really lacking given the value segment positioning of motherboards with VIA chipsets.

VIA won't really need an HT 3.0 chipset until AMD starts shipping mainstream HT 3.0 parts based on Agena and Kuma, which will be at least a few months. Even then, newer VIA chipset releases over the past few years have usually lagged a couple months behind the newer processors.

VIA's integrated graphics could use a refresh but then that is the never-ending story.