Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Intel to ship DDR-based 845 B-step in November

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Intel to ship DDR-based 845 B-step in November

    Intel formally informed Taiwan’s motherboard makers that it will start volume deliveries of its DDR SDRAM-supporting chipsets, the 845 B-step (Brookdale-D/845D), in November. The new products will be sold at the same prices as its PC 133 SDRAM-compliant 845 chipsets. Due to capacity and marketing concerns, Intel will include the latest chipsets in its clients’ original orders, instead of releasing them separately.

    Despite Intel’s normally taking a marketing consciousness approach, this time motherboard makers said that quoting the same prices on two chipsets has made it very difficult for them to position products. Unlike Intel’s 815E and 815EP, which are integrated and discrete chipsets, respectively, the 845 and 845 B-step are both discrete chipsets, and do not differ very much in prices or features. Board manufacturers indicated that products based on the two chipsets will have to compete against each other in the high-end segment.

    The 845 B-step chipset is officially priced at US$42 and that is expected to drop by US$2 at the end of December. At present, prices quoted to first-tier companies are below US$38, and around US$40 to second-tier board makers. As for other chipset designers’ products, the P4X266 from VIA Technologies and SiS645 from Silicon Integrated Systems (SiS) are both priced at about US$25, targeting mostly low-end markets.

    Currently, both first and second-tier companies have all finished product designs and volume production plans, and they have reached agreement with Intel to showcase their 845 B-step-based motherboards at Comdex Fall in mid-November.

    Intel previously planned to launch its DDR-based chipsets in the first quarter of 2002. However, seeing Taiwanese chipset companies like VIA and SiS entering mass-production of DDR-supporting products, the chip giant decided to move its schedule up to secure market share, especially as SiS will start volume deliveries of the SiS645 next month. Sources suggested that Intel did not really encourage board makers to adopt SiS645 chipsets to counter VIA as reported.

    According to sources, 845 B-step motherboards will claim no more than 10% of first-tier companies’ shipments in November. The ratio is expected to rise gradually after December. Intel plans to let the 845 B-step account for 50% of its total 845 chipset shipments after the fourth week of December.

    source http://www.digitimes.com/NewsShow/Ar...ages=03&seq=21
Working...
X