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ATI roadmap 'drops Intel chipsets'
Adds single-chipset and other goodies
ATI is preparing a single-chip chipset based on is RS590 product, it has been alleged by moles who claim to have seen the company's latest roadmap - which also no longer lists many of ATI's upcoming chipsets, they say.
According to a report on Chinese-language site HKEPC, the single-chip chipset, dubbed SC780, combines ATI's RS690 integrated North Bridge and SB600 South Bridge cores on a single 65nm die. The roadmap points to a Q3 2007 release aimed at entry-level systems.
By that time, ATI should have released its RC610 chipset for Intel processors, the report claims, but the RD700, RS700 and RC710 chipsets, which were added to the company's roadmap earlier this year, have now been removed from the latest timelines provided to customers.
AMD's acquisition of ATI is clearly the motivation, whether because ATI's new owner doesn't want to develop chipsets that support processors made by its arch-rival or because it doesn't expect Intel to license ATI future bus technologies. Either way, the result is the same, and ATI is focusing on AMD-oriented chipsets.
RS690 is expected to ship in October alongside the RC690C, which lacks the RS690's HDMI port support. RC610 follows is Q1 2007. In Q2 2007, AMD/ATI will ship the CrossFire-enabled RD790, and the following quarter it will offer an integrated version, the RS790 - the latter will apparently incorporate a DirectX 10-capable graphics core.
Intel is expected to ship its own DirectX 10-supporting integrated chipset, part of the 'Bearlake' family, in Q3 2007. ®
Read Reg Hardware's ATI Radeon X1950 XTX review here