Intel plans to lower its 865 series (Springdale) chipset prices on June 29, but a more significant price cut on 865-based motherboards can be expected only after the middle of the third quarter, when Taiwanese chipset designers catch up with Intel in product specifications, board makers said.
Despite its plan to boost demand by cutting prices, Intel will only cut prices by US$1-2 on June 29, suggesting little pricing pressure in the current market. However, motherboard manufacturers believe that the chip giant may announce larger price cuts by the end of the third quarter if Taiwanese chipset designers introduce 800MHz FSB (front-side bus), dual-channel DDR400 products on time in that quarter and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) launches its K8-core Athlon 64 processors in September as scheduled.
Among the Taiwanese chipset companies, Silicon Integrated Systems (SiS) is currently the only one offering 800MHz FSB-supporting chipsets. Though its SiS648FX is quoted at around US$20, according to motherboard sources, which is at least US$10 cheaper than Intel"s 865 series chipsets, it supports only single-channel DDR400 standard. The company"s dual-channel-DDR-based SiS655FX and SiS661FX are scheduled to enter mass production in the third quarter.