Taiwan-based chipset designers VIA Technologies and Silicon Integrated Systems are reportedly months behind Intel with their chipsets that support a new type of interconnection called PCI Express. The delay of new chipsets may play a negative role for the companies’ sales in the high-end market.

VIA, SiS Postpone New Chipsets

Sources familiar with VIA’s and SiS’ plans told DigiTimes web-site that VIA would begin shipments of its VIA PT890 core-logic in late July, while volume shipments of SiS’ PCI Express-enabled SiS656, SiS649 and SiS756 chipsets are expected to come in late August. Intel Corporation officially unveils its series of chipsets with PCI Express x16 and x1 lanes support on Monday, the 21^st of June. Typically the company ships products to clients before announcements, which means that the world’s largest chipmaker has already received revenues for its i915P, i915G and i925X families of chipsets.

Earlier this year VIA planned to start shipments of its VIA PT890 core-logic in the first quarter, months before Intel’s own chipsets hit the market. The move could bolster tangibly revenues of the world’s No.2 core-logic designer, however, for some reasons VIA delayed its new product.

Intel Likely to Put Price Pressure

VIA’s PT890 is intended for the new Intel Pentium 4 processors in LGA775 packaging. One of the main capabilities the product has is support for both types of graphics slots – AGP 8x and PCI Express x16. Besides, the chipset features dual-channel DDR2 memory controller, four Serial ATA-150 ports with RAID support. VIA will also ship PM890 product that has integrated DirectX 9.0-compatible graphics core. VIA’s KT890 core-logic also sports two types of graphics cards’ interconnection, but is engineered for AMD Athlon 64 processors and does not sport memory controller.

SiS’ new breed of core-logic products – SiS656 and SiS649 – also sport PCI Express x16 and x1 lanes, dual-channel DDR2 memory controller and are intended for Intel Pentium 4 processors. SiS756 is designed for AMD64 chips.

Since Intel will be first-to-market with its PCI Express chipsets, VIA and SiS are likely to feel certain price-pressure from the market leader, the web-site notes. Nevertheless, both already signed a number of contracts to supply the new chipsets and are likely to enjoy revenue gains.