Intel appears to be anticipating strong demand in the next quarter for its 965 chipset driven by the demands imposed upon PC hardware by Microsoft's Windows Vista. Certainly, Taiwanese industry moles claim the chip giant plans to boost shipments by 50 per cent in Q1 2007.

So suggests DigiTimes, alleging Intel wants to use Vista to drive demand for its top-of-the-range integrated graphics products.

This burst of sales activity will pave the way for the introduction of the 965's successor, 'Bearlake', toward the end of Q2 2007. The report's sources claim Bearlake-class chipsets like the X38, P35, G35 and G33 will account for 30 per cent of Intel's chipset sales in Q3 2007.

Intel's not the only Vista-hungry integrated chipset maker, of course. Nvidia is believed to have low-end integrated parts in the works, designed to fill out its top-heavy line-up and cash in on demand for low-cost PCs that nonetheless have sufficient graphics horsepower to run Vista's Mac OS X-esque Aero Glass user interface.

This week it was alleged that AMD has delayed its AMD 690 integrated graphics chipset, albeit just from January 2007 to February. It's said the set-back arises from HDCP licensing, but it may well help AMD take more timely advantage of consumer interest in Vista. ®