Mobile Chipsets: Guts And Glory

In the mobile chipset market, ongoing competition to bundle larger features sets in smaller packages, along with the drive to tablet computing, is pushing manufacturers to explore new options. ALi's CyberALADDiN-T is getting attention as a tablet platform, with its 400 MHz system bus and HDTV-grade video output capabilities. Each vendor has jumped to push at least one new technology into its chipset offerings,all support at least some level of DDR memory, Intel has already put a USB 2.0 solution in its 852GM chipset, and SiS incorporates an MPEG2 (DVD) decoder in notebook-ready chipset lines for both AMD and Intel.

Laptop graphics components continue to shed their deserved reputation for laughable quality. With DDR memory sharing, integrated graphics are at least serviceable, and VIA now claims an internal AGP 8X-equivalent graphics engine in its ProSavage chipset line. Discrete mobile GPUs are even more promising, as the NVIDIA GeForce4 Go and ATI Mobility Radeon 9000 offer desktop-level performance, allowing external RAM or up to 64 MB of on-chip integrated video memory. Both vendors integrate LCD-optimized shading and smoothing techniques.

The first major announcement in mobile chipsets this year is the Intel Centrino platform, but despite prelaunch hype that spoke of a chipset with integrated low-power wireless, Centrino is nothing of the sort and is being launched as a quality-of-experience play. The 802.11b implementation is simply a bundled Intel mobile-PCI card. Centrino does include a new 855 series chipset with "deep/deeper sleep" power savings, and the new "Banias" Pentium-M CPU, designed for lower power consumption and slower speeds than the Pentium 4-M. All three components can be purchased and integrated independent of each other.

Still, the branding move may be enough to force competitors to act. Transmeta and VIA are both seen to be gearing up for another run at the notebook market with security-enhanced CPUs. "I'm pretty sure both companies will offer 'platforms' of their own," says Peter Glaskowsky, principal analyst with MicroDesign Resources.

Intel, obviously, defends the platform branding approach as meaningful beyond just adding a new logo and jingle. "In the past, [OEMs] would tend to do more shopping around for individual components, then do the validation themselves," says Bob Gregory, director of initiatives planning at Intel. "They rely on us more for that now."

Taiwanese chipset makers (VIA, SiS, and ALi) don't get much respect from mainstream corporate IT buyers, so they continue to innovate around feature sets and price to make themselves heard. They deserve thanks (or blame) for driving the Intel market away from RDRAM, and have extended the capabilities of the Athlon platform far beyond the capabilities offered by AMD's now-dormant chipset business.

ServerWorks chipsets in the data closet and data center aside, IT buyers looking under the hood seem to prefer sticking with the Intel brand from top to bottom. In part, this has been by design, as Intel has tried to carefully protect its chipset and CPU combinations through patents and legal action. "I think they're getting dangerously close to antitrust behavior, which could be a different kind of drama. I don't think folks care a lot, but they probably should," says Enderle. Companies such as VIA and SiS have moved ahead with contested chipset implementations regardless, but Intel still wins the minds of business despite lagging behind in features such as AGP 8X and IEEE 1394 integration.

"The Intel chipset is still the majority choice in the motherboard business," says William Hsiung, president of reseller Medialand Systems of Hayward, CA. Many companies just don't look at the chipset brand and series when evaluating RFPs. Cathy Clarke, speaking for Greenwich Technology Partners of New York City, told VARBusiness that the issue of chipset branding or feature set is simply not of paramount importance to consultants or customers when designing a corporate system rollout. OEM and CPU brands tend to carry the day.

"Most customers trust the company that they're dealing with, so they will listen to our suggestions when we compare VIA and Intel, and after we explain, we have a very good chance to sell VIA instead of Intel," adds Hsuing. The secondary brands have fought a perception problem driven by the frequent need for driver CDs outside the core Windows install to obtain full functionality, as well as suspicion that product line turnover was driven by flaws rather than feature improvements.

VIA says it got the message. "To sell to corporate customers, you have to provide a stable platform, extend the life of existing products and make sure you're still manufacturing them while the demand is there," says Richard Brown, associate VP of marketing.

AMD plays the exact opposite to Intel's game, having essentially exited the Athlon chipset market over a generation ago in favor of partner companies. The new NVIDIA nForce2 chipset is widely seen as AMD's best chance to penetrate mainstream IT, given the arm's-length feature set and the broad shoulders of a brand with more American cachet than the likes of VIA, which actually dominates the Athlon chipset market. But delays with the nForce2 launch "scared the hell out of" one major PC manufacturer, according to Enderle, and he foresees a chipset re-entry by AMD "if NVIDIA can't fix their problem." The major advantage to nForce2 for the enterprise is system image stability both forwards and backwards. "Nobody is giving what NVIDIA is promising to give them, although Intel promises with the 845 chipset image stability backwards."

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