New SiS-based boards offer an entry-level choice of integrated graphics for the AMD Athlon 64

With the recent availability of AOpen’s S760GXM, ASRock’s K8Upgrade-760GX and Asustek Computer’s K8S-MX motherboards in the market and the Elitegroup Computer Systems (ECS) 760GX-M and PC Chips M871G coming out soon, system builders and consumers finally have a real choice of entry-level Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) Athlon 64 solutions with integrated graphics (IGP). With seven vendors already providing IGP boards based on the VIA Technologies K8M800, at least five preparing boards based on the ATI Technologies Radeon Xpress 200, and several readying boards based on the Silicon Integrated Systems SiS760GX, the next few months will demonstrate whether the market is ready for this type of solution. Mainstream acceptance may not just be a boost for AMD processors; it may also present a challenge to Intel’s continued dominance in the integrated graphics market.

The opportunity in the integrated graphics market is clear. In the second-quarter edition of Jon Peddie’s Market Watch, widely quoted in various media at the beginning of August, integrated graphics shipments in the desktop segment saw 5.5% sequential unit growth on the first quarter. Intel and VIA led the desktop integrated graphics market, and their unit shares of the overall market were boosted to 37.7% and 8.9%, up from 33.0% and 7.8%, respectively. The new chipsets from SiS may help the company boost its overall share of the market from the 6.2% estimated by Jon Peddie for the second quarter.

The SiS760GX northbridge is a development of the company’s SiS760 chip, which included a local frame-buffer interface for dedicated graphics memory. With the increase in speed of the Athlon 64 processors and the general availability of faster memory, motherboard makers requested a version without the local frame buffer, said sources at SiS. Interestingly, ATI’s new Radeon Xpress 200 offers an optional local frame buffer. Sources at ATI expect a range of motherboards to hit the market in the first quarter, with prices as low as US$70 for boards without the frame buffer. SiS760-based motherboards were launched in the first half of this year and remain available at around US$100.

Of the five new SiS-based boards, three pair the SiS760GX northbridge with the SiS964 southbridge, one uses the SiS964L, and the Asustek offering uses the SiS965L. With the 760GX and 965L combination, the Asustek board becomes the first AMD Athlon 64 solution with integrated graphics to support PCI Express (PCIe) x1. This PCIe support, coupled with AGP 8x, RAID0, RAID1, SATA and on-board LAN gives the board ample upgrade options for a whole range of users.

The combination with the SiS964 southbridge offers a more mainstream solution – without PCIe. In September, SiS announced that HP and NEC had chosen the SiS760GX and SiS964 combination for mainstream and value consumer PCs to be launched next year. SiS said in the announcement that NEC had chosen the chipset for its Valuestar TZ series.

Source: Companies and sources, compiled by DigiTimes, November 2004.
ATI chipset photos by Johan Chen, DigiTimes Lab. VIA K8M800 chipset based on K8T800, others courtesy of companies. Prices from PCToyland.com, PriceWatch.com, PriceSpy.co.nz (NZD1 = US$0.7146, less 12.5% GST) and estimates by sources.

In related news, potential problems with the USB connectivity provided by ATI’s Radeon Xpress 200 solution have been identified by The Tech Report. On December 4, The Inquirer indicated that a new revision would be available in the first quarter. Any problem relating to USB connectivity, almost certainly located in the southbridge, should not be an issue for solutions using the ATI northbridge with the ULi southbridge.

Article edited by Stephen Taylor