ATI will unveil its long-awaited SB600 South Bridge chip next month, a senior company executive has revealed. The product is set to help the company limit its dependency on its South Bridge-chip partner ULi, now owned by ATI's arch-rival, Nvidia.

According to Billy Wang, ATI VP for Asia Pacific and China, the SB600 will be introduced in May, DigiTimes reports. As we revealed last week, ATI's RS600 integrated chipset, of which the SB600 will surely be a part, has won its PCI Express compatibility certification.

The RS600, the RS690 and possibly their discrete equivalents, the RD600 and RC690, were said to have been scheduled for a June introduction. Wang's comment suggests they may appear sooner than expected. The chipsets are expected to incorporate HDCP support and the HDMI output seen at the Consumer Electronics Show in January. Web reports also say they'll feature HD Audio.

The SB600 will be fabbed by TSMC, Wang indicated. ®