The second company after ATI, which is lucky enough to get a license from Intel permitting the official development of Pentium 4 chipsets, is expected to be SiS. According to some rumors coming from Taiwan, the corresponding agreement should be signed in March already.
As you see, Intel turns out very inventive as it comes to Pentium 4 bus licensing. As a result, Intel’s major competitor in the chipset market, VIA, appears deprived of the opportunity to launch its Pentium 4 chipset aka PX266. Maybe Intel is trying to regain its dominating position in the chipset market this way. However, to tell the truth the real reasons seem to be a bit different and the lot fell upon SiS only because this manufacturer is famous for its low-cost solutions. Since Intel wants Pentium 4 to have a 50% share in the processor market before the end of the year, it has to supply the market with a sufficient amount of cheap platforms for this processor. Neither i850, nor Brookdale due in Q3 can boast such a low cost. Therefore, a low-cost SiS645 chipset for Pentium 4, which development is presently in progress, could be exactly what the company needs. However, even though SiS promises to announce this product in Q3 2001, the real products based on it will appear only in the end of the year. So, SiS is very likely to become not the only lucky guy in the chipset market and other Taiwanese chipset manufacturers will also get the sacred license.