If Intel is extending its 845G family by introducing the 845GLL – a drastically cut down version of the chipset – it comes like a bolt out of the blue to most Taiwanese motherboard manufacturers.
A report on Digitimes earlier this week suggested that Intel would introduce the chipset to combat plunging prices and to compete with the myriad of manufacturers buzzing round the formerly lucrative market.
The GLL, the wire reported, will cost less than $25.
But motherboard makers The Inquirer talked to said they had not been notified of any such chipset.
One told The Inquirer: "We don"t know anything about the GLL, and Intel hasn"t told us anything. The roadmaps for the next year don"t mention this chipset, even though Intel is already talking to us about [next year"s] Springdale chipset."
That view was confirmed by another well known maker of motherboards who expressed surprise at the introduction, if it happens.
Intel had originally intended to launch the 845GL as a cut down or crippled version of the 845G chipset, but drew back after complaints from its partners.