SiS, a Taiwanese chipset manufacturer, has thought of the possible ways out of a very complicated situation, which formed last year, as we read over here. As a result of some conflicts with UMC, which was supposed to manufacture SiS’s chipsets, the mass production of the core logic sets by this company was almost ruined in 2000. however, now that SiS has already launched its own production lines, which allow making 0.18 micron and 0.15 micron chipsets, the company is ready to win back its lost positions. And the weapon they selected to struggle against unfavourable circumstances is very primitive: the pricing. For instance, SiS633 and SiS733 discrete chipsets (for Socket370 and Socket A processors respectively), which can boast features similar to those of VIA 694X and i815EP, are planned to be selling for $19 per unit. The prices on SiS630S and SiS630E are also to get cheaper in the nearest future.
With these measures SiS hopes to sell 50000 chips in Q1 and around 250000 chips by the end of the year.
Well, the plans do not look that fantastic, actually. Due to lower prices of SiS chipsets, many mainboard manufacturers are ready to develop their products based on them. However, SiS hasn’t yet managed to supply its chipsets in mass quantities and as you understand, manufacturing few low-cost mainboards doesn’t make much sense. That’s why if SiS manages to convince the mainboard manufacturers that it would be capable of shipping enough chipsets, the company will undoubtedly win a certain market share this year.