X-bit labs

Interview with VIA Technologies’ Ben Boyden (page 6)

Category: Chipsets

by Anton Shilov

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

X-bit labs: Are there any important DRAM trends you want to outline?

Ben Boyden: From VIA’s perspective the most important thing to focus on is the arrival of DDR-II, so we are just concentrating on being ready for that.

X-bit labs: When do you project to start shipping core-logic products with PCI Express support, e.g. PEG x16? Do you comment on the share of such products among all VIA’s chipsets products in 2004?
 
Ben Boyden: As I mentioned earlier, we are planning to launch the PT890 chipset for the Pentium 4 processor platform in Q1 ’04, with the KT890 chipset for the AMD64 platform following shortly after.

At this early stage it is very difficult to make any comment on forecasted share of these products among all chipsets. This will be determined by a number of factors beyond our control, such as the uptake by mainboard makers and OEMs, and the availability of PCI Express graphics cards and other PCI Express peripherals such as Gigabit Ethernet cards. Most important for us is to be ready to meet that demand as and when it is there, which we expect to do.

X-bit labs: What do you think of Wi-Fi software capabilities brought by Intel in Grantsdale? Do you plan to implement something of this kind too?

Ben Boyden: Following the trend of all other I/O technologies it’s inevitable that one day full WLAN capabilities will be integrated at the core-logic level, but exactly when this will happen is hard to say. It remains to be seen exactly how much Wi-Fi software capabilities will benefit customers, as they will still require an additional wireless card. Currently we are reviewing our strategy for integration of WLAN capabilities, but we cannot offer any more details at this time.

X-bit labs: So, the most important chipset technologies we will see from you in 2004 will be PCI Express interconnections, dual-channel DDR and DDR-II memory, Azalia audio, more Serial ATA-150 ports, less expensive Gigabit Ethernet controllers, integrated graphics cores with DirectX 9.0 capabilities, 1GHz HT bus. Maybe anything else?

Ben Boyden: I think that covers all the key chipset related technologies for us at VIA over the coming year. If I think of anything else I’ll be sure to let you know.

X-bit labs: Thanks for you answers and a great interview, Ben!