Silicon Integrated Systems, a third-party chipset developer based in Taipei, Taiwan, has not introduced a single new core-logic set for more than a year now and many believe that the company is about to quit from the PC chipset business. Despite of the lack of any new offerings, SiS claims that it will concentrate on I/O controllers and will continue to ship products based on demand from its customers.

SiS has not introduced advanced or even mainstream chipsets for AMD Phenom processors or Intel Core 2 chips that feature 1333MHz processor system bus despite of the fact that the company has all appropriate licenses. To make the matters worse, the company has lost a massive chunk of the market to companies like Advanced Micro Devices, Intel Corp. and Nvidia Corp.

According to some reports, SiS “switched profession to TV chips” from PC chipsets sometimes back in Q1 2008, which explains the lack of new core-logic sets from the company. However, some other reports from Taiwan, quoted Silicon Integrated Systems as indicating that it will keep “shipping its PC chipsets products based on client demand with availability extending until 2011” and that the company “will turn its focus” to the development of I/O controllers, which are also known as south bridges, since there will be no need for graphics and memory controller hubs (GMCHs, or north bridges) once both Intel and AMD have memory controllers as well as graphics cores inside processors.

Various chips from SiS still power inexpensive embedded solutions as well as cheap notebooks from various manufacturers. However, with no new offerings from SiS, mainboard manufacturers will inevitably shift focus to chipsets from other companies.

Obviously, SiS will continue to supply its chipsets until there is demand, just like Via Technologies still ships some of its products to interested parties. But without any new core-logic sets or concrete roadmaps, the days of SiS chipsets are likely to be counted.

Tags: SiS