PM Forum - Q3/2003: Part 1

4. Upgrade cycles are stretching out and i845PE motherboards have enjoyed a high volume of sales. For the next two quarters, is your company…

PM #1: Because of the economy, users/corporations still have a tight budget. However, since new Intel FSB800 CPUs have become mainstream, the demand of new 875/865 family boards also becomes strong and stronger. …we will definitely extend our production to fulfill the demand.

PM #2:

1. The price gap getting less in clone market between FSB 800 vs. 533 CPU.
2. The price gap getting less between Serial ATA HDD vs. ATA/133 HDD.
3. 848P platform lower price will squeeze 845 series portion.

PM #3: 848P will share some market of the 865PE.

PM #4: Intel will promote the 865 series more aggressive in 2H 2003, including price cut downs.

PM #5: 845 series demand will stay strong in 3rd world countries, basically, but the 865 series will be the mainstream choice for industrialized countries.

PM #6: To see an increase of volume for 865G/865P/865PE, we need to have its chipset cost approach the $25 mark. This will make the Springdale chipset more mainstream.

PM #7: We except the market will start moving to dual channel DDR instead of single channel. Dual channel will become mainstream in the following quarters.

PM #8: It all depends on how Intel is gonna push its 800MHz CPU.

PM #9: The new chipset i848P will be a sweet spot from Intel. The transition planning from 845PE to 848P is POR to happen in Q4. The 845PE will EOL gradually.

The response we got back for both parts of the question were the same: 85% yes and 15% no. We asked this question to see if the high sales of the i845PE/GE motherboards have saturated the market to the point where upgrades or sales of the next generation of chipsets would be hindered. It seems that isn’t the case. Manufacturers are, for the most part, gearing themselves for relatively the same volume of production. Additionally, we are on hand to expect more price cuts in the last half of 2003, which bodes very well for consumers and manufacturers. It was once suggested that dual channel would be skipped for DDRII, but this hasn’t materialized. DDRII is still a ways off, and dual channel support is up due to new Intel chipsets. It is suggested from the feedback that single channel DDR will hit the end of its life sometime in Q4, which means sales will be further boosted by this phase out.