via ain't gonna be filling any gaps.
Earthquake Shakes Up Via
Chip maker had much to gain from Intel's 820 delay, but now must deal with a setback of its own.
by Terho Uimonen, IDG News Service
October 1, 1999, 3:34 p.m. PT
Via Technologies might be wishing it had cashed in its chips. The chip maker, which gained a window of opportunity for its new Apollo Pro chip set last week when Intel halted shipments of its 820 chip set, is reeling from a blow dealt by Mother Nature.
Via on Friday announced that last week's devastating earthquake in Taiwan will delay shipment of the company's chip sets.
Via had hoped that Intel's delay would draw additional customers to its own new chip set, which supports 133MHz memory and system bus speeds, compared with the 100MHz offerings currently available from Intel.
Via's offices and facilities in the Taipei suburb of Hsinchuang were not damaged by the 7.6-magnitude quake that rocked the island early last week. But its chip set supplies have been affected because power outages forced the company's manufacturing partner, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, to halt production.
"TSMC will cover the expenses of damaged wafers, and the only effect on shipments will be a one-week delay," Via officials say in a statement issued Friday. Wafers are slices of silicon from which chips are cut.
No Immediate Shortage
Earlier this week, a Via spokesperson said the company expected no short-term problems in shipping supplies to PC vendors, since it had stocked up in expectation of a busy fourth quarter.
"We have been talking to three of the top four PC vendors," the Via official said then. "The only exception is that one company that only uses Intel parts," he added, in a thinly veiled reference to Dell Computer, one of Intel's most important allies in the PC industry.
Micron Electronics earlier this week became the first major vendor to announce high-end PCs based on Via's Apollo Pro 133 4x chip set.
First-tier PC vendors such as Compaq, Hewlett-Packard, and IBM, however, are unlikely to sign up for the Via offering unless they are sure that Via can supply the chip set in adequate quantities.
Via's chip set supports most of the features offered by Intel's 820, with one important distinction: The 820 was designed to be the first device to support the faster, new Rambus memory interface technology. Problems with the Rambus technology are the main culprit in the shipment delay, according to Intel.
Acer Laboratories and Silicon Integrated Systems, the other two major suppliers of chip sets, also are likely to experience delays because of the quake. They too rely on Taiwan's contract chip manufacturers.
TSMC reports that it was forced to scrap 28,000 wafers as a result of the quake. The chip maker expects to lose $88 million in sales revenues during September and the fourth quarter. Fallout from the quake is expected to lead to lower-than-expected production volumes. |
