Despite the abundant competition in the motherboard business, a new company has set up shop here with a line of motherboards.

Established in May, Q-lity Computer Inc. is a subsidiary of Quanta Computer Inc., a Taiwan-based portable PC maker. Quanta manufactures notebook PCs for Apple Computer Inc., Gateway Inc. and other vendors.

Q-lity has joined the motherboard market, which already is filled with competitors, including chip heavyweight Intel Corp. While initially focusing on motherboards, it is planning a full line of PC components and peripherals.

In particular, the company plans to offer barebones server and desktop systems, which include the chassis and some software technology but no memory or CPU.

Q-lity showed off a barebones book-size PC system at the Intel Developer Forum in late August. The slimmed-down design follows the Ease of Use industry initiative led by Intel Corp. and does not include ISA slots.

"We have a lot of experience in manufacturing, so we know how to make a product in an economical way," said William Yang, senior director of sales and marketing at Q-lity.

Q-lity is targeting regional distributors and plans to work with them to offer resellers training on its products and technology.

For example, Agama Systems Inc., a Houston-based distributor and maker of unbranded PCs, is going to give Q-lity boards a try, said Q-lity President David Chang.

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