VIA Pentium 4 chipset ships to mobo makers
PrintStill set to undercut Intel on price
Posted in Channel, 25th July 2001 14:24 GMT
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News has surfaced once again that VIA's controversial P4X266 Pentium 4, DDR-based chipset will undercut Intel's own P4, SDRAM-based i845 chipset by 25-30 per cent.
According to a short item over at Overclockers Workbench, VIA has begun shipping the P4X266 to mobo makers. Some 30,000 chipsets have gone out in the initial batch.
We await with interest Intel's reaction. The chip giant says VIA's chipset uses Pentium 4 technology the Taiwanese chip company doesn't have the right to use. Bollocks, counters VIA - we obtained the right when we bought S3 Graphics (which did have a P4 licence) off SonicBlue.
As for the price, that emerged last month. VIA sources said the part would be priced at around $35 - less than the $43 Intel charges for the i850 and the $40 it demands for the i845. ®
However, it is interesting that the part, which was introduced at the Computex trade show early June and is expected to be officially launched in August, has begun to ship to motherboard makers. With its DDR support, it should outperform the Intel board, which limits memory bandwidth by using PC133 SDRAM. The DDR version of the i845 isn't due to ship until early next year. ®
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