Intel Developer Forum Fall 2002 - Day 1: An end to a start

SiS & ALi Demonstrating Chipsets

SiS was also present at the showcase showing off, among other things, their R658 Rambus-based chipset. SiS is expecting R658 boards to hit the market in Q4 with official PC1066 support. With R658 motherboards expected to debut at significantly lower prices than other Rambus-based motherboards, we might finally start seeing low-cost PC1066 solutions on the market. SiS has had their own fabrication plant for a while now, so they’re able to leverage the economies of scale and produce chipsets at lower costs than their competition (compared to fabless companies like VIA, NVIDIA, and ALi for example); therefore, it won’t be too unexpected to see $100 R658-based (PC1066) motherboards some day.

The only other chipset maker present on the show floor was ALi. As of late, ALi hasn’t really been concentrating on what they’re best known for, CPU chipsets. Instead, they’re going after other markets, which include DVD drives and 802.11 wireless devices. However, ALi did show off their Pentium 4 chipset, the ALi M1563, which they claim will be available in Q4 this year. They also claim this board will officially support DDR400 once JEDEC approves a specification.

Final Words

It’s been a very interesting and entertaining day 1 at IDF in San Jose so far. From Banias to Dual Core Itaniums to Serial ATA to DDR-II, and much more, there’s a lot to talk about. Hopefully Day 2 will bring loads more technology to look at and discuss. As usual, we’ll be on the show floor with coverage of any technologies that come our way.