Since the arrival of the Pentium 4 processor the chipset market for this platform has been seriously dominated by Intel. The so called competition being VIA and SiS have struggled to gain momentum in the Pentium 4 chipset market for one reason or another. VIAs cause for poor sales in this market segment has been heavily influenced by lawsuits. That is up until now as they are just beginning to find their feet and recover from poor sales. On the other hand there is SiS a company that has been reasonably trouble free compared to what VIA went through. So what has SiS been doing? While they didnt fully miss their opportunity to rub salt in VIAs wound and make a quick dollar at the same time, they did however miss the chance to establish a reputable name in the P4 industry.

The SiS655 chipset was their only entry into the P4 market for quite some time, and although it was a reasonably impressive chipset I feel they didnt follow through. The SiS655 chipset was introduced some time after the arrival of Intels E7205 (Granite Bay) chipset. Nonetheless the SiS655 chipset was a far superior solution boasting Dual-Channel DDR333/400 support. Compared to the Dual-Channel DDR266 support of the E7205 chipset this was a big step in the right direction and SiS were the first to take it. However, once Intel unleashed their second generation of P4 chipsets SiS was all but forgotten by not only the consumers, but also the manufacturers.

Finally, after a year of nothing new in the way of Pentium 4 solutions from SiS, they decide to unleash their second generation of chipsets. Timing could not have been better for SiS really, as VIA are set to unleash their first P4 Dual-Channel DDR400 chipset being the PT880 anytime now. The flagship product of these second generation chipsets has been dubbed the SiS655TX. This generation of chipsets includes two high-end products being the SiS655TX and SiS655FX. The only difference between the SiS655FX and SiS655TX chipsets is Advanced HyperStreaming Engine (AHSE) technology supported by the latter.

Both products are designed to compete with the current performance chipsets from Intel, this includes the Springdale (i865PE) and of course the Canterwood (i875P). The main focus for SiS has not purely been placed upon performance, thankfully they have identified the need for value. This is something Intel has failed to do with their high-end chipsets although the i865PE is not too bad value wise. Until recently performance has been the most important aspect of a chipset/motherboard. Features are quickly becoming more and more important and this means the Southbridge has turned into one of the most significant aspects of todays chipsets.

In order to provide maximum flexibility, value and features, the SiS655TX chipset is coupled with the latest Southbridge from the SiS940 series. The SiS964 Southbridge supports Serial ATA150 with RAID, Parallel ATA, FireWire, USB 2.0, AC97 Audio, 10/100Mb/s Ethernet and various other important features.

While this next generation of SiS chipsets looks set to take on the big guns from Intel, there is one more big hurdle they have to get over and they seem to be doing this successfully so far. Support is the key to sales, support from the motherboard manufacturers. To date SiS has many of the larger manufacturers in this industry already producing SiS655TX and SiS655FX based solutions. This includes one of the biggest icons among the enthusiasts market, that being ASUS who has been quick to adopt these new chipsets.

The ASUS version of the SiS655TX chipset has been titled the P4S800D-E. At first glance the P4S800D-E looks like a basic sort of motherboard however upon closer inspection an abundance of features is discovered. These features include support for four Serial ATA150 drives, ATA133 RAID, Firewire IEEE1394a, USB 2.0, 5.1 Channel Audio, WiFi connector and 10/100/1000 LAN.