S3, Via confirm chip cooperation

Chipset company Via and graphics company S3 confirmed today they had set up a strategic alliance. Both will work together to produce integrated chipsets for both AMD and Intel microprocessors. The first fruits of alliance are expected to arrive in the second half of this year aimed at both mainstream and low end PCs market. According to S3 and Via, their solution will provide "substantial performance improvements and cost savings". Via has become increasingly aggressive towards Intel, which also produces chipsets. Last week, we saw the first chipset to support the PC-133 memory standard, a standard that Intel has repeated again and again it will not support. S3's relationship with Intel is shrouded in mystery but earlier this year we confirmed it has patents which Chipzilla covets. ®