A boxed motherboard version of Intel's Solano II chipset, which utilises synchronous memory (SDRAM) is now unlikely to arrive until September or October this year, it has emerged. But in a further sign of channel alienation, it appears that major PC manufacturers will get mobos from Intel as early as June. The channel is already upset about Intel's boxed chip scheme, after they were told just after Coppermines were launched on 25 October last year that they would have to wait for supplies. That led one major European distributor to tell The Register "We had an Intel business, but it was just chipped away by the firm." Intel has clear priorities about which firms get its top of the range microprocessors, but AMD, its much smaller rival, has carefully cultivated the channel over the last two years. And it's not only the channel that is disturbed by Intel's apparent shift of direction. A major second tier vendor, who did not wish to be named, and which supplies a number of large UK corporations with PCs, said: "The 815 will be a niche product. Some of my customers will want it, but I have had trouble supplying my Intel only customers with enough product. I am still suffering shortages and the 500MHz Celeron has only just become available in any quantity." An Intel spokesman said that he could not comment on unannounced products. ®