Via, SiS aim for high chipset market share

Taiwanese chipset firms Via and SiS both announced over the last few days that they mean business in the chipset market. They want to grow their market share at the expense of chip giant Intel. On Friday, SiS said its target was to have 35 per cent of the market by the year 2002, while Via is even more ambitious. It claims it will have as much as half of the chipset market by the year 2001. SiS claimed it will ship over 20 million parts in 1999, representing around 20 per cent of the market. The claims are not idle boasts. Intel takes competition from Via and the other indie chipset companies very seriously indeed. At last week's Intel Developer Forum in Palm Springs, senior VP Pat Gelsinger said he was more paranoid about Via than about AMD. Via today announced it had now completed its acquisition of Cyrix. ®