Sources close to Intel plans said today that the company had plans to release its i815 (Solano) chipset early, in a bid to bridge some of the gaps in its portfolio. The Solano chipset, although an extension of the i810 (Whitney) chipset, has support for AGP 4x. Although it was intended to be produced in the first half of next year, the indications now are that it will bring the introduction forward. That could be as early as December according to the sources, who added that Intel will make modifications so that an AGP slot can be added to motherboards. The i810e chipset has come under some criticism because it uses an integrated graphics solution which is comparatively low-end. Although Intel planned to use this integrated technology in the same way, it now seems as though the company will extend Solano. ®