X-bit labs

Interview with VIA Technologies’ Ben Boyden (page 2)

Category: Chipsets

by Anton Shilov

[ 01/06/2004 | 09:23 AM ]

X-bit labs: Do you think you can also talk about market shares in the Athlon XP and Athlon 64 markets?

Ben Boyden: Currently VIA has approximately 70-80% of the chipset market for AMD Athlon XP processors, and has already established a strong leadership position in the AMD64 processor platform, currently commanding about 90% of the market for chipsets.

X-bit labs: What is your strategy to increase your presence in both AMD and Intel markets?

Ben Boyden: We will continue to deliver chipsets that offer the right balance of performance, stability and features.

Aiming to differentiate chipsets through raw performance only is no longer a feasible strategy, especially when you consider the competing chipsets for the Pentium 4 processor now offer very similar real world performance levels. In addition to good performance, the best all round chipset package should offer customers the latest integrated I/O and storage technologies, and stability through a unified driver base.

For example, our VT8237 South Bridge brought integrated Serial ATA-150 and V-RAID to the market and supports 6-channel and 8-channel VIA Vinyl Audio configurations. By offering such a complete package it has become an immensely popular option with mainboard vendors, OEMs, and SIs alike. Our next generation South Bridge will build on this feature set and will feature up to 4 Serial ATA devices with AHCI command queue support.

At the same time our unique VIA Modular Architecture Platform (V-MAP) allows pin-to-pin compatibility between various VIA chipsets, meaning mainboard customers can effectively cover multiple market segments with only one design, and a unified driver base with VIA’s Hyperion 4-in-1 drivers. In the increasingly competitive world of today’s mainboard business, these are critical advantages to our customers.

X-bit labs: According to some industry sources we got that you are selling some of your chipsets at very low price. It surely affects margins and revenues, in case it is true. Can elaborate on this matter? Do those products still bring you some profit?

Ben Boyden: I am not sure how accurate your sources are and what the prices you refer to are. What I would say though is that the chipset business is an increasingly competitive arena, especially in light of some newer players coming in recently. In any such arena it is inevitable there will be aggressive competition on pricing. Furthermore, we offer a comprehensive range of chipsets to cover all price points and segments, so at the lower end you can expect pricing to be particularly aggressive.

X-bit labs: Is chipset business actually profitable for VIA, keeping in mind competition and some other factors?

Ben Boyden: Yes, the chipset business is a profitable one for VIA, otherwise we would not be in it! We operate an efficient and streamlined fabless business model, which ensures sustainable profits even when competition is particularly intense.

X-bit labs: Can you elaborate on markets you are penetrating aggressively these days?

Ben Boyden: For some time now VIA has been more than just a chipsets provider, having branched out to a number of other areas. Two of the markets we have big hopes for in 2004 are audio and networking.

On the VIA Audio platform, we will continue to push forward with our line of VIA Vinyl Envy Line of Audio controllers. Already we have seen the widespread adoption of VIA Vinyl Audio solutions in the soundcard market, and in 2004 we will be making a bigger push with audio solutions for media-centre PCs, and some exciting new notebook audio solutions.

VIA is also working hard to promote our Gigabit Ethernet solutions. 2004 will be an exciting year for Ethernet as the market is expected to make a quick transition from 10/100 to Gigabit as a standard feature on desktops. VIA's Velocity line of Gigabit Ethernet Controllers offers high data transfer performance, low CPU utilization, and leading-edge PHY technology that incorporates a powerful noise cancelling DSP to ensure full-speed connections over longer cable distances in any home or office network.