Introduction
Today, Taipei had an air raid drill. So far we have established that it is hot, muggy, and the place is prone to the odd earth tremor. Then, there’s the whole air raid thing. Oh, well, mustn’t dwell on it too much because, it turned out to be another good day on the show floor. No use fretting about air raids. I mean, what can you do?
One thing that is quite apparent about the way things work around here: it’s a build-it-and-they-will-come kind of place. You walk into any company’s booth, and you get the feeling that there is an almost endless supply of product options available to you. But, that’s not exactly true. There is an endless capacity by manufacturers in Taiwan to build anything you want. They’ll build it in anticipation of a market.
Computex has got that US trade show religion with its own booth extravaganzas clogging up the tight arteries of the show floor. Someone has to stop this, and the use of the Riverdance DVD in demos.
Take the next generation nForce boards, of which I have now seen enough to feel gorged. There they are in display cabinets just waiting to go. However, you talk to the board makers and they refuse to commit to future production or indulgence.
“Hey, we’ll build as many of them as someone buys.”
That’s the mantra. Hence, you’ll find no end of K8 mobos on display, just itching for an actual CPU to get going. But, according to our sources, AMD might only get 10,000 units to ship by December, and as low as 400,000 units in the first quarter of 2003. Hardly the stuff of dreams and drama, although you wouldn’t think so by the amount of fonts thrown at it in the contrarian press.
There are too many products to look at, but someone is bound to want one of them, so as long as there is a buyer, there is a maker over here. Ninety per cent of this stuff will never make it to the US, or Europe. A lot of what’s on offer only goes as far as China or India, maybe Europe, but no further.
There’s a lot of speculation in play. And it is sometimes just play. That’s why I hestitate laying out an endless list of mobo names and numbers, not knowing what the future holds for any of them or their configurations.
Intel price squeeze sucking up low-end
Intel is playing hard once more. After being relatively passive in competition with AMD in the last year, the giant is starting to flex some serious muscle. Intel is competing with the Taiwanese with its own 845G and 845E mobos causing some consternation, but the expectation is that Intel will drop chipset pricing before the end of the summer to allow the board makers here to start ramping up their own production.
Intel has always had its own demonstration area away from the main show floor.
This year, Intel took space on the show floor, and had its people milling around and handing out freebies.
For a long time Intel has been finding it difficult at the lower end of the mobo spectrum. Now, it appears that Intel is squeezing the market on price, and sucking up the bottom of the market. Once Intel planted itself firmly in the DDR camp, it gained control of pricing. Now, it wants to use that control to squeeze its competition.
AMD had better positioning on its booth, and was throwing out hammers and tee shirts to the assembled throng. The hammers were non-THG-ish. Hmmm.
So, while there’s plenty of K8 support out there, there’s a lot of 845G and 845E mobos hanging on booth displays. They’re there waiting for a big end-of-year push. They’re there because Intel wants them there, and will drive them into the market somehow, even if it is Intel that is choking its partnes with its own board business right now.
As a result, the mobo vendors are obviously hoping to push AMD product in the retail channel to keep their margins up, and they’re willing to buy into AMD’s assertion that K8 will be here by end of year. Yet, the word is that AMD is saying there’ll be no more than 10,000 CPUs available by December, and 400,000 in the first quarter of 2003. This is certainly not enough to justify the emphasis on K8.
Who knows? I still say this end of year is a bloodbath waiting to happen.
Conspiracy theory 101 – Is AMD’s hammer Tom’s?
I don’t really believe in conspiracy theories, but events sometimes conspire against me. At first, it was a small promo dropped in my hand as I was leaving the hotel, and then, it was this, below.
A little blurry on this rushed shot, but there it is, plain for everyone to see, a suspiciously THG-ish hammer being used as the mark of K8 for upcoming mobos from Abit. The same kind of design appeared on a promo card from Gigabyte. Hmmm.
It seems that the hammer being used to mark the K8 mobos is suspiciously THG-ish. I don’t remember us ever saying anyone else can use our hammer, a hammer designed by one of the world’s great graphic artists, a virtual hermit who wishes to remain anonymous, but who has helped forge an identity that confuses Home Depot shoppers everywhere. That kind of incredulous reaction is priceless, and you can’t just manufacture a logo like that out of the blue.
I wonder if this is one for our intellectual property lawyer, Sue D. Rich? You be the judge.
MSI – another NDA?!
I saw that really cool thing again, and I signed another NDA. What is up with that? Maybe it is not so cool. Maybe it is just frustrating not to be able to show you a picture or talk about it. No worries. It won’t impact most average or enthusiast users for at least another year so, there’s time.
Iris Li and Vincent Lai, marketing managers from MSI, keep me from spilling the beans.
In yesterday’s coverage we already covered the fact that MSI has integrated Bluetooth and 802.11b onto its mobos. That’s a very key, strategic push on MSI’s part.
In the general market, MSI is also seeing gradual shifts in the channel. MSI has a different perspective than some of the other companies I saw today. Half of its business comes from OEMs, 20% from systems integrators (SIs) and 30% from distribution, which also feeds the retail market.
Traditionally, the OEM and SI channels tend to favor Intel products, and fluctuations in the distribution channel will impact both AMD and Intel. While the channel has been predominantly AMD in the last year, a rough split of 55/45 in favor of the company, recently the balance of power has shifted to Intel with as much as 60/40 split.
FIC – turning ATI IGP into an nForce contender
FIC’s taken the ATI IGP and integrated it on motherboards for P4 and Athlon XP, creating its own alternative to the nForce. The P4 version of the board is the VT31V using an ATI A4 graphics chip and the Via 686B Southbridge until ATI has its own. The AMD version is the AT31.
The FIC IGP motherboard in a neon lit case for demo purposes. It doesn’t always glow like it’s been hit by Gamma rays.
FIC told me that the price on these boards may come down to under $100, giving them a distinct price advantage, too.
One of the advantages of the FIC solution is that you can drive two displays.
It’s an interesting approach by FIC. Whether it has any market impact remains to be seen, but with a P4 solution, it does go after the kind of higher-end mobo market for which an integrated solution like this is best suited.
FIC provides an optional card to provide the output for the displays.
FIC – turning ATI IGP into an nForce contender, Continued
On the other side of the spectrum, FIC is dabbling in the mobile space with these two products. One based on the Mira spec from Microsoft, which is, in effect, a Windows CE device that can be adapted for use in Asian markets where these products do have a growing market.
Like I said, if there’s a market someone here will build it. FIC jumps on the Mira bandwagon.
However, the more these products find acceptance and sales for Taiwanese vendors, no matter where those sales come from, the more likely we are to see them find their way into the US and European mainstream.
The FIC Tablet PC.
Soyo – is this the best mobo company for enthusiasts?
About 60% of Soyo’s business comes from the retail channel, which means that they love the enthusiast market. The company also does a pretty good job of packaging its goods with the individual performance freak in mind, bundling an SPDIF audio card and a Soyo Sigma Box front panel USB port with each of its mobos. Obviously, Soyo is very much focused on the AMD market where it has a lot more control, and where it is not in direct competition with Intel.
However, Soyo does have an RDRAM P4I Raptor board based on the 850E, and an 845E P4I-845E Serial with Serial ATA in the Fall line-up. Soyo is providing a parallel to serial riser on its mobos so that people who upgrade to Serial ATA boards can still find support for their parallel drives.
Vivien Lien, marketing manager for Soyo, takes us on a tour of the Soyo universe.
Anyhow, there was the obligatory K8 mobo on display. We should expect to see these suckers in a Fry’s or CompUSA sometime in the new year. It’s been a while since AMD had a major chip release, and there is some anxiety over the arrival of the K8.
Soyo’s going to be there for AMD’s K8, and it is probably more important to the company’s customers than most.
On the graphics side Soyo has some good news: the company plans to offer a line of ATI cards to complement its existing Nvidia offerings. The ATI 8500 will come in two versions:
- An overclocked version at 290 MHz,
- A regular version at 250 MHz
Mobo vendors don’t have shipments of the Via KT400 chipsets, and so they expect that it will be September or later before it will get its KT400 Dragon Ultra board out. Pretty much in line with what other mobo vendors are saying.
On the plus side, the KT333 Dragon Ultra Platinum Edition started shipping a week ago.
The KT333 Dragon Ultra Platinum Edition is the aristrocrat of mobos begging for a transparent case.
Soyo also sees that there is some buzz around the SiS648 and supplies of the chipset are expected in August. That’s when you should expect the Soyo P4S-648 Dragon Ultra.
The SiS648 will give mobo vendors a much needed alternative in the P4 market to the typical VIA and Intel offerings. Cost is a big factor.
Albatron – the latest mobo brand
Albatron is the latest mobo maker to enter the market, but the company’s CEO Jack Ko, a former Gigabyte founder, has the experience to help the company find a place for itself in a crowded market. Albatron started off as Chun Yun Electronics in 1984, primarily a display manufacturer. The name change only happened this year to signal the company’s change in direction.
Hunter Wu, CTO stands next to Candice Yu, and Venny Yu from Albatron’s marketing division.
The product line is primarily focused on the 845G, and 845E, and includes a Bluetooth access point. It’s a little sparse, but Albtron has high hopes. Is there room for another mobo maker?
Well, if Albatron can deliver quality and build a brand around that, heck yes. While there are a lot of suppliers, there are few with brand recognition and the quality and technology to back it up. In that regard, Albatron at least has a clear cut strategy. Mr. Wu demonstrated an 850E board overclocked to support DDR400. It needs to have good quality memory, in this instance Samsung, and Albatron believes that if it can engineer similar solutions that are stable, but have a slight edge, it will find success.
Overclocked 845E with DDR400.
The company also has a KT400 offering, and a host of Nvidia-based graphics cards. In fact, that’s pretty much everything you need to compete in the market this year. Not a lot of showy stuff for the future, but that’s not a bad thing. Albatron doesn’t look like it is trying to make noise for the sake of noise. There’s a quiet confidence about the company, and that’s rare in this cutthroat business.
So, welcome Albatron. Let the games begin.
Abit – firing on all cylinders
What a power meeting Abit turned out to be. Some very cool products across a broad spectrum. Let the pictures do the talking.
Sylvain Braem, and Lester Lau of Abit welcome THG with a little help from their friends behind the bar.
Abit is going to be in Serial ATA. While mobo vendors are a little unsure about the prospects, they are embracing Serial ATA because of its inherent advantages in simplifying the mobo design and layout.
Yup. You are seeing right. A set of speakers designed to match your Xbox. Take a look at the monster sub-woofer on the floor in the bottom right hand corner. This is the Abit Siluro Theater SP70.
Abit – firing on all cylinders, Continued
Abit is there with an SiS648 board as well, the SR7-8X.
The Abit Siluro Theater digital converter hooks up the Abit Siluro Theater speaker system.
This is about the coolest NAS server you are likely to see anywhere. The Abit NAS.
The Abit NAS’ rack mounted cousin is pretty sexy looking, too. Can a NAS be too sexy?
As for other products, Abit has the following on tap for the rest of the year:
- The WA-2A – Dual 462-pin Athlon MP board.
- IT7 – the Abit 845E onslaught with USB 2.0 and the option for the Media XP card reader to attach. The Media XP is going to have Bluetooth access, as well as support for USB 2.0, Firewire, and CF/SD/MS support.
- The SI-2P and SSR-1P – dual processor server mobos that are the basis of three barebone Abit server systems.
The Fish Mouse and other stories of love
On my usual walkabout, I thought it might be nice to keep in touch with my feminine side (don’t want to lose that very appealing characteristic), and the first thing that caught my eye was this wonderful mouse from Accesspro.
According to the sales lady on the booth, this is a hit with the girls.
What a wonderful gift for that very special someone, although I am not quite sure whether confusing fish and mice is a good thing under any circumstance. There is obviously a psychological edge I am not getting.
On the other hand, this footsy input device holds promise for both genders. The USB Fitness Stepper is from Alfadata.
The demo for this thing is a software program that tracks your progress through a virtual city. It is, literally, exhausting.
I don’t think any of you online Quake players would last more than a few minutes in a multi-player walk fest. Yeah, I’m talking to you, buddy.
Computex wouldn’t be Computex without keyboards. Lots and lots of keyboards. This one caught my eye.
The Pen Commander from UC-Logic has a stylus input area on the keyboard. There has to be a better way than using a mouse all the time.
I really liked the look of this thing, and the pen input seemed to work fine in demo mode. Then again, I am a keyboard enthusiast, and that makes me weird. Maybe this is just for input fetishists. Whatever.
The Fish Mouse and other stories of love, Continued
Life in techno-world would not be complete without something more Linux than a Penguin shaped computer case. This product is from a company called Comep in Hong Kong. They also had a pretty impressive range of speakers. Cool audio from audiophiles, it seemed like.
The Linux-based Info-Netter – an Internet appliance that plays DVDs, CDs, VCDs, and functions as a Web browser and MP3 player, too.
Now, it isn’t all work and no fun here in hot, muggy, air raid possible Taipei. Obviously, there really is no reason for this next picture other than to let Flamenco lovers everwhere know that this beautiful dance continues to be adopted beyond the borders of Spain. Next stop, Ulan Bator.
There was no pretence of a product push on this booth. It was just a good show.
Saintsong designs and manufactures these mini book PCs, as they are called.
Cappuccino PCs are very small form factor PCs built around P3 866/1 GH CPUs.
They can be pricey, and obviously they are not state-of-the-art in performance terms, but damn fine looking pieces of machinery nonetheless. Good idea; needs more power.
The Fish Mouse and other stories of love, Continued
Finally, I took a look at these shiny X PC systems from Shuttle. Compact, cool, and apparently, the front panel is going to be interchangeable so that you can add different covers in the future. There’ll be an Intel and an AMD one from which to choose. Worth keeping an eye out for them.
The Shuttle X PC is slated for Q3 2002.
Jubilant Koreans round off the day
Now, I have to go celebrate with a bunch of very loud Koreans in the local disco. Apparently their team beat Poland 2-0 in their first World Cup game. The Lakers win the Western Conference, Korea beats up on Poland, Senegal upsets France – what more reason does a man need to unwind with something the locals call Taiwan Beer, a brew that is never going to find an export market, I tell ya’ now. In the meantime, keep watching the skies. You’d think someone at Computex would have come up with a personal AWACS system for just these situations. Sheesh! Build it and I will come and get it, baby!
Please follow-up by reading Computex Part III – Mobo ennui affects mobo makers.
