X-bit labs

Interview with VIA Technologies’ Ben Boyden (page 3)

Category: Chipsets

by Anton Shilov

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

Current Activities, Market Trends

X-bit labs: Can you tell our readers the ratio between Intel and AMD chipsets at VIA? In the past, present and future?

Ben Boyden: Sorry, I do not have that kind of information. What is important to us is that we continue to offer the industry’s most comprehensive portfolio of chipsets for both Intel and AMD processor platforms. The rest is up to our customers and the end-users, of course.

X-bit labs: You have contracts with some big PC makers, such as Dell. Can you note your other clients among the tier-one and tier-two OEMs? Do they ship VIA products for home or business clients?

Ben Boyden: It is our policy not to comment on specific customer relationships, but I would say that at this time just about every major OEM ships products featuring VIA chipsets. The fact that we offer such a wide portfolio of chipsets, including discrete and IGP chipsets for both AMD and Intel processor platforms means that our customers are able to cover all home and business user segments.

X-bit labs: VIA has closed down the VPSD group. Was this initiative actually a success, or not?

Ben Boyden: In fact VPSD was never closed down. It was recently renamed as the VIA Embedded Platform Division (VEPD), to reflect its successful evolution into a business predominantly focused on the embedded market. VEPD continue to provide various versions of the very popular Mini-ITX mainboard, which you can read about at http://www.viaembedded.com.

X-bit labs: Any projections about the PC market growth next year?

Ben Boyden: Most informed sources seem to be in agreement that 2004 will see significant growth for the PC market, and may even be a record year in terms of PCs shipped. Given that we have just seen the busiest Christmas season for the PC industry in many years, it certainly appears things are moving that way, and in addition to strong consumer demand, it also appears the corporate market is finally emerging from its long slump.