Michael - Mobile Versions of the i740 Graphics Chip for Notebooks are already being Discussed.
Intel's acquisition of Chips and Technologies will begin paying off real soon now.
Paul
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infoworld.com
Intel readies mobile version of new 3-D
graphics chip
By Terho Uimonen
InfoWorld Electric
Posted at 10:44 AM PT, Feb 18, 1998
TAIPEI, Taiwan -- Intel later this year is set to claim a larger stake in the PC graphics world as it readies a mobile version of the newly introduced Intel740 3-D graphics accelerator chip for desktop PCs, company officials said here Tuesday.
The chip giant is working on a notebook version of the 740, with the help of engineers from Chips & Technologies, a leading developer of mobile graphics chips that has been merged into Intel, said Brian Ekiss, graphics marketing manager, Intel's platform components division.
Intel already has mobile 2-D graphics chips available, now that the Chips & Technologies takeover is completed, Ekiss said.
Officials declined to say exactly when the mobile iteration of the 740 will be introduced, but the rollout will happen before year's end, said Eric Sun, Intel's Taipei-based regional marketing manager for chip sets and graphics components.
Industry sources here, however, noted that because Intel is positioning the 740 chip for Pentium II systems, the launch will probably follow the company's introduction of the first mobile versions of its high-end Pentium II family, scheduled for April.
Although only two Taiwanese makers, Asustek Computer and Leadtek Research, were among the companies that announced add-on graphics cards featuring the 740 at the launch last week, Ekiss said that several others are waiting in the wings. (See Intel graphics chip
spawns accelerator boards.)
"The Taiwanese makers are very excited about the product," Ekiss said.
Winning support for the graphics chip in Taiwan may well prove crucial to Intel's efforts to become a major player in the PC graphics chip arena. Ekiss on Tuesday acknowledged that it would be realistic for Intel to shoot for a 30 percent to 40 percent market share of the desktop graphics market.
Taiwan-based makers last year produced the lion's share of the world's graphics boards, shipping more than 14.5 million, or some 43 percent of the world's total supply, according to estimates from Taiwan's government-backed Institute for Information Industry's Market
Intelligence Center.
And anecdotal evidence suggests that the Taiwanese makers are willing to give the Intel chip a try at least. "Why not? We don't really care if we use S3 or Intel's graphics chips," said one official at a board maker here which is still evaluating the Intel offering. "It makes not much difference to us, but consumers may well be won over by the Intel brand."
Intel initially will target the 740 chip at such add-on cards for consumer PCs in addition to business desktop computers, because the chip's price tag makes it too expensive for most makers of motherboards that integrate graphics on the main board, said Ekiss.
The 740 currently is priced at $35 in 10,000 unit quantities, while the graphics chips featured on such all-in-one boards today are priced at $20 and below, he added.
And first-tier PC makers, such as Compaq Computer, Hewlett-Packard, or IBM, are looking for even cheaper options for their low-cost consumer PC offerings, Ekiss noted.
"The sweet spot for the big guys seems to be around $15," Ekiss added.
That does not mean, however, that the first-tier PC vendors will not first use the 740 in higher-end offerings, with the first such models expected to see daylight by April, Ekiss said.
Intel Corp., in Santa Clara, Calif., can be reached at intel.com.
Terho Uimonen is a Taipei, Taiwan, correspondent for the IDG News Service, an InfoWorld affiliate. Jeff Tsao, a Taiwan Computerworld/InfoWorld reporter, also contributed to this article.
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