Petz & AMD Investors - Some potentially BAD News on the K7 Chip Set issue -
"Question
Do you plan on releasing a K7 motherboard? What chipset would a K7 motherboard use?
Answer
As far as we know that AMD's K7 chipset is still in Alpha phase, and other chipset vendors are all behind AMD, so it is really “Planning” rather than action, a good guess for the product launch should be Q4 '99.
Question
Which processor will dominate in 1999? Do you think it will be the Pentium III, Celeron, K7, K6-III or Cyrix Cayenne/Jedi?
Answer
I would say it's going to be PPGA Celeron on quantity wise."
Take it for what it's worth.
Paul
{================================} fullon3d.com
The following is an interview with the Shuttle Group which has yearly sales over 200$ million US. Shuttle is famous for its Spacewalker line of mainboards. This is my first interview here at FullOn3D (I was formerly at PC One which has merged with FullOn3D). I hope you enjoy it. Please note that my comments are personal responses to the answers to clarify situations.
Question
Will Shuttle be coming out with products based on alternative chipsets like the Via Apollo Pro Plus or SiS or Ali? What do you feel are the advantages of these alternative chipets over Intel?
Answer
Shuttle has already introduced several new models based on VIA's Apollo Pro+ chipset, and we will keep up with the latest technology from VIA and SiS such as 133MHz FSB solution.
Question
Do you plan on releasing a K7 motherboard? What chipset would a K7 motherboard use?
Answer
As far as we know that AMD's K7 chipset is still in Alpha phase, and other chipset vendors are all behind AMD, so it is really “Planning” rather than action, a good guess for the product launch should be Q4 '99.
Comment
Hmm...Q4 '99 seems quite late for a K7 motherboard considering the K7 is supposed to be released at the end of the 2nd quarter of 1999. Maybe suggests some problems with the K7 chipset or the K7 itself?
Question
The Super7 market is remaining strong considering the release of the K6-III. Do you intend to continue your support for the Super7 platform or are you moving in favor of the P6 bus?
Answer
We will move most of our development onto P6 bus, however we will also keep supporting S7 market, as it still represents over 20% PC market share in '99.
Question
Abit is threatening to sue companies that have a jumperless BIOS similar to their Softmenu. They state that they invented the Jumperless BIOS. What are your comments about this situation?
Answer
We have no comment on Abit's claiming, on the other hand, Shuttle first introduced CPU PnP which allowed users to plug in any kind of S7 CPU without the hassle to set the CPU voltage a couple years ago.
Question
Abit motherboards allow you to change voltage of the Pentium II processor. Why do Shuttle motherboards not have this feature and why has the ability to change voltage disappeared with the shift from Socket7 to Slot1? Do you plan on enabling this feature in future products like SOYO does?
Answer
The only reason to change voltage on Pentium II is to overclock, the majority of users do not understand what Vcore and Vio stand for, and most users may not know wrong voltage setting could damage the CPU, especially when user can easily change it through BIOS, no, we would not risk user's investment as a marketing strategy. On the other hand, it is necessary to have Voltage setting for S7 since there are varieties of CPU in the market, each uses different voltage setting, that's why we have the CPU PnP technology mentioned above. As for the planning in future product, we are still in a controversy between engineering and marketing, one possible solution is to offer a limited voltage adjustment on the P6 system.
Comment
I say go for the limited voltage adjustment. One of the reasons why Abit is doing so well is because their motherboards allow you to change voltage and consequently, overclocking is more successful and stable. Safety is another important factor. You don't want to burn your CPU. So the best compromise is to allow a restricted voltage configuration.
Question
What chipsets do you intend to use for your graphics cards this upcoming year? TNT2? SiS300?
Answer
Our focus will remain on mainboards in '99, however we might introduce M/B with TNT2 and S3 Savage4 in later this year.
Question
What is your product roadmap this year for your motherboards? Do you know if intel's Camino has been delayed? Will Rambus DRAM affect overclockability of processors as SOYO stated?
Answer
We will launch series of new M/B based on the latest chipset technology including Intel's Camino in different formfactors, M/B is only the platform to implement the chipset features, these new features include 133MHz FSB, AGP 2.0, ATA66, Rambus, VCM, and DDR memory, we have no comment on Intel's schedule. As for the overclockability, normally you will need consider at least 4 elements, CPU, Chipset, AGP, and memory, for a 150MHz overclock Camino, the Rambus will operate at 450MHz and 900MHz sampling rate( Double edge), we would not be surprised it's going to be the most crucial part of the system.
Question
What is Shuttle's current market share in the motherboard market?
Answer
We shipped over 2 million boards in '98, it's approximately 2% to 2.5% market share according to the marketing research.
Question
Which processor will dominate in 1999? Do you think it will be the Pentium III, Celeron, K7, K6-III or Cyrix Cayenne/Jedi?
Answer
I would say it's going to be PPGA Celeron on quantity wise.
Question
What are your comments about core logic suppliers integrating video into their chipsets? Do you think this is good for the motherboard industry?
Answer
As far as low cost PC trend continues, the integrated solution is the most cost effective way to go, while high-end market still prefer flexibility, I am not sure if it is good for M/B industry, but for sure it's beneficial for the consumer.
Question
What bus speeds will you support in you upcoming motherboards like the one with the Intel Camino? If you are intending on releasing a motherboard based on a newer alternative chipset, what frontside bus would you support there?
Answer
All the chipset suppliers including Intel and 3rd party will officially support 133MHz FSB in their newer solution, our solution will always a little bit higher than official claiming to allow more flexibility.
Question
Do you think that the Super7 market is ready to move on to the 133 Mhz frontside bus? Do you think AMD, Cyrix, IDT or Rise will release a processor with a 133 Mhz bus?
Answer
No, I don't think so. The S7 system requires one more factor than the P6 bus for higher FSB, the cache system, not like the P6 architecture, the S7 system has CPU, chipset, cache, and memory all resides on the same bus, this heavy load will constrain the bus speed.
Question
AGP compatibility and performance has been relatively poor with current Super7 chipsets? What is the reason for this?
Answer
For the performance, I believe it is related to CPU floating point capability more than the chipset, take AMD's 3DNOW! as an example, K6-2 has much better 3D performance than the K6 based on the same environment. As for compatibility, indeed it requires more collaboration from chipset and Graphics suppliers.
Question
What are the key-selling points of your motherboards? Who do you think are your main competitors?
Answer
Compatibility and Reliability are always the spirits of our product. As the maxim goes, “ Our biggest enemy is always ourselves”, the challenge is to provide a better than ever product to our customers.
Question
Finally, do you expect to release a Slot1 to Socket370 converter card? Is it possible to make a Socket 370 to Slot1 converter card and will you make one if it is possible?
Answer
We already have one converter card available in the market, theoretically it is possible to go the other way round, it's just we don't think that's a smart idea to do so, eventually converter card will go into history.
Comment
I don't think that these converter cards will become history. There is actually quite a bright future for converter cards considering that Intel is rumoured to be leaving the Slot interface in favor for the less costly Socket interface as proven by the Celeron PPGA. It is believed that Intel will come out with a Socket Pentium III with integrated cache. The Slot basically has served its purpose and it's time to move on.
A big thanks to Sharon Liau at Shuttle for her time. I will be receiving a Shuttle Via Apollo Pro Plus mainboard next week so stayed tuned for a review. The comments in this case represented personal reflections and repsonses to the answers.
Jonathan Hou 1999
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