Neither Intel nor Silicon Integrated Systems had predicted ultimate adoption of their integrated chipsets this Fall correctly, as Taiwanese sources now report about shortages of i865G and SiS651 core-logic with integrated graphics controllers. The demand for the mentioned products has been rising because of orders from OEMs.

It looks like the personal computers market is rebounding this Fall, as the shortages in the supply are not among the first indications about that. A couple of weeks ago Intel announced in its mid-quarter update that its Intel Architecture business [the division in Intel Corp. that deals with microprocessors and platforms] is generally trending higher across all geographies and channels. In case the microprocessors are selling well, it makes sense that the chipsets will sell well also.

Currently OEMs have to either hold the shipments of their PCs or build their personal computers using non-integrated chipsets and lower-end graphic cards. This may boost demand for graphics cards powered by inexpensive GPUs, such as RADEON 9200 SE or GeForce FX 5200 SE.

Supply constraints of Intel’s 865G chipsets would be nice for ATI’s RADEON 9100 IGP core-logic since the demand for this feature-rich and probably fast core-logic would improve significantly in that case. However, as ATI still does not supply its new chipset with integrated DirectX 8.1-class graphics core to its customers, the short supply of competing solutions is neither positive, nor negative for ATI Technologies.

DigiTimes web-site claims that SiS will resolve the problem with supply constraints of its SiS651 product, but there is currently no information about measures Intel prepares to resolve the shortages of its chipsets.