It is not a secret that i845 chipsets with A3 (SDRAM) and B0 (DDR SDRAM) core stepping are selling to the mainboard manufacturers at almost the same price: $34-$36 and $36-$38 respectively. It is also known that the production of i845 A3 core stepping is being ceased down very rapidly, and should be stopped completely very soon. However, DDR SDRAM prices are now so high that it would be correct to speak about this memory type leaving the mass market and getting very close to the level of RDRAM. Of course, this is a very unpleasant fact for Intel, since high DDR SDRAM pricing undoubtedly tells on the sales of i845 B-Step chipset, which is actually not that cheap at all (and it is the only Intel’s mass solution for Pentium 4 CPU). Of course, the current DDR SDRAM prices are just a temporary phenomenon, however, bearing in mind the cut-throat competition in the market, even a couple of months can turn out of great importance (remember that AMD’s share has increased by 7% within one single quarter, as we told you here).
That is why no wonder that there arrived some rumors from Taiwan about the large PC and mainboards manufacturers pushing Intel to consider the possibility of shipping… a cheaper i845 solution supporting only SDRAM (returning to the past!) and costing less than $30. Moreover, it is evident that the whole thing is not about the old i845 with A3 core stepping, because its supplies are about to be stopped in the nearest future, as we have just said.
It would be most logical to suppose that Intel will continue producing i845 chipsets with B0 core stepping and a part of them will be deprived of DDR SDRAM support and sold for less than $30, while the fully-fledged i845 B-Step solutions will keep selling for $36-$38. It is obvious that i845 chipset family has become less profitable for Intel, however, a pretty successful and clear splitting into several market segments (value and more high-performance) will be quite useful. Besides, it is very easy to discontinue a cut down chipset modification. By the way, the cut down i845 B0 (if it ever comes out) will differ from the older i845 A3 solution not only by the core stepping, but also by the supported memory size (A3: 3GB/6 banks; B0: 2GB/4 banks.)