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Original Link: https://www.anandtech.com/show/824
VIA Technical Forum - Day 1: Politics and Chipsets
by Matthew Witheiler on September 5, 2001 1:18 PM EST- Posted in
- Trade Shows
As VIA's response to the Intel Developer Forum gets underway, it has come to our attention that the politics surrounding the computer industry are as thick as ever. It seems that every player in every major market is battling it out to maintain historic strongholds. This power struggle is only exacerbated by the economic downturn that the industry is facing. We think that now would be a good time to bring you, the readers, up to speed on the inner workings of the computer industry because it effects you more than anyone else.
The two areas that are currently facing the most pressure from component manufacturers are the motherboard and video card markets. Let's see who the players are and how they are putting pressure on board manufacturers to get their way. It seems like it's going to be a regular occurrence that our trips to Taiwan are met with controversy; from the balloons at Computex to P4X at the VIA Technical Forum, the saga continues...
From disappearing balloons to vanishing motherboards
It is not surprising that at VTF 2001 there is quite a bit of conversation surrounding motherboard chipsets. There are actually two different pressures that motherboard manufacturers are facing as they prepare to design and launch motherboards based off of recently announced chipsets. The first pressure is from Intel.
Naturally, Intel is not too happy about the launch of VIA's P4X266 chipset. The fact that VIA is promoting a DDR SDRAM solution isn't really what bothers Intel the most; it's the fact that VIA is defying Intel by not claiming to need to purchase a license for the Pentium 4 bus because of their acquisition of S3. Could VIA just license the bus from Intel? Absolutely, but for some reason the pricing they've offered VIA on licenses is much greater than what they've offered ALi and SiS. There is quite a bit of animosity at Intel towards VIA and it's obvious that they'd rather allow VIA's competitors to come to market with their DDR solutions than see VIA succeed with the P4X266. Is this the start of an "Anything But VIA" campaign over at Intel? After VIA's recent successes it wouldn't be too surprising.
Although VIA insists that they are fully licensed to use the Pentium 4 bus in their P4X266 chipset, motherboard manufacturers are still unwilling to upset Intel. This is very reminiscent of the situation surrounding the release of the first Slot-A Athlon motherboards. P4X266 boards that were initially present on the VTF show floor have been strangely disappearing throughout the conference. The manufacturers we have spoken to say that they are playing it safe until the legal issues surrounding the P4X266 are worked out. Luckily, we were able to grab a few shots of some P4X266 solutions before they disappeared, as shown below.
While we understand that the major players in the motherboard market (for example, ASUS, MSI) and those with close ties to Intel (for example, ABIT, Iwill) won't be releasing P4X266 boards anytime soon, this is really the time for the smaller and lesser known manufacturers to step forth and steal the lime light. It's almost shocking that we haven't seen a P4X266 board from FIC; usually they are the first with VIA chipsets due to their extremely close ties to the company but this time around things seem to be different for some reason.
Companies like Acorp and Shuttle need to seize the moment and get as many of these P4X266 motherboards into the hands of reviewers and even more importantly into the channel. This is the only time that they won't have to worry about competition from the bigger manufacturers in the marketplace and they don't even have to be worried about being compared to ABIT and ASUS in reviews as well.
Even Tyan had a P4X266 motherboard on display. If Tyan is really serious about getting into the enthusiast market that they've ignored for some time, a quick release of a solid P4X266 motherboard is one way of doing it. Their TigerMP doesn't have overclocking features but a reliable and widely available P4X266 motherboard could turn things around for them as well. Recently Tyan has been acting out of character; the previously pro-Intel manufacturer is shipping the current fastest dual processor x86 platform based on an AMD chipset and now this. Kudos to Tyan, now get this board on the market and we'll all be happy (well, most of us at least).
Intel is not the only company faced with tough competition; VIA is also worried about loosing motherboard market share to competing companies, mainly SiS. As many of you know, and our SiS 735 review shows, the SiS 735 chipset has been giving some competing VIA solutions a run for their money. Both consumers and motherboard manufacturers are excited about SiS 735 boards due to their low price and high performance. Naturally, VIA is a bit concerned.
In response to this concern, we have already seen VIA's marketing team at work. At Computex we reported of VIA promising higher performance BIOSes and other benefits to motherboard manufacturers that stayed away from the SiS 735. It seems that VIA, through experience, learned what works when it comes to securing chipset market share.
Motherboard manufactures are split when it comes to the rebate offer. Some manufactures have chosen to not produce SiS motherboards, citing both the rebates as well as some issues that have been encountered with the SiS chipsets. Other manufactures have chosen to respond to consumer demand and create SiS 735 motherboards as well as VIA solutions. We got a chance to talk to SiS about the rumors going around and they said that they were not really concerned with the pressure that VIA is placing on board manufacturers. They believe that the market will decide which product is best. With the release of the KT266A the unfortunate truth for SiS is that the 735 is no longer the best product. A hard hitter in both products and marketing, a dangerous and very powerful combination for VIA.
The final buzzword of motherboard chipsets, nForce, seems to be not nearly as buzz-worthy as it was a few months ago. Motherboard manufactures have become a bit concerned with the lack of maturity on the upcoming NVIDIA chipset and the speed that it has promised to offer. Only time will tell if the manufacturers' concerns are a good prediction of market reception.
Taiwanese manufacturers deal with new pressures
The motherboard market is not the only one that is being pulled in various directions by chip suppliers. With the announcement that ATI will be selling their chips to 3rd party manufacturers as well as the recent announcement of the Radeon 7500 and 8500 have caused quite a bit of turmoil in the video card industry. Much like what is happening in the motherboard market, the video card market is facing pressure from two major players: ATI and NVIDIA.
It seems that ATI has approached more than a few video card manufactures, offering to sell both Radeon 7500 and Radeon 8500 chips to them and promising market success. At the same time, NVIDIA has been pressuring card makers to reject ATI as a solution. The unspoken threat that NVIDIA is coming to manufacturers with is that if a company produces ATI cards then not only will relations be hurt but NVIDIA chips will be harder for them to get.
Naturally, this places quite an amount of pressure on card makers. Many video card manufacturers that we have spoken to have expressed interest in ATI products but have decided not to produce them as of yet simply because of NVIDIA's pressure. In fact, many of the companies that we have spoken to have said that they are not currently working on Radeon based cards but have not eliminated them as a solution quite yet. Many of the popular video card manufacturers would not be around today if it were not for the success of NVIDIA's chips, placing an even greater pressure on the manufacturers to stick with NVIDIA.
Every manufacturer has slightly different opinions of the situation mostly as a result of various relationships with NVIDIA. Expect video card producers who have historically stuck to NVIDIA only video cards to continue to do so, while others who have toyed with SiS and Kyro solutions may try and produce ATI based cards. We can say for sure that there will be some 3rd party ATI cards out there in the near future.
Regardless of who makes the cards, NVIDIA still has to release a product that will compete with the new Radeon cards. Look for more information regarding NVIDIA's GeForce3 refresh later this month in direct response to the Radeon 7500 and 8500.
Summary
In summation, the politics of the computer industry are as thick as ever, thanks in a large part to the economic downturn that many technology based companies are forced to deal with. It is not an easy time to be a motherboard or video card manufacturer: not only must you deal with decreasing sales as a result of a poor economic climate, you also must face pressure from large companies that are crucial to your success. Do not expect the struggle, in either sense, to be over any time soon.