The second part of my look back at Computex 99 will summarize all the other interesting new products and developments I came across. As you could see in part one already, Computex seems to become a lot more meaningful. Many new developments in the computer industry are either coming from Taiwan, or they depend on the support from Taiwanese businesses. K7, PC133 and Whitney (Intel 810) are only a few of those.

Intel's 810 Chipset Is Finally Starting To Ship

Visiting motherboard makers at Computex included one thing in any case, the introduction of a new motherboard line based on the Intel 810 chipset. You certainly remember it, it's Intel's new low cost platform chipset with included 3D-graphics. Listing all the motherboard makers that supply 810-boards would definitely go to far here, but there will be a 810-motherboard review published at Tom's Hardware Guide very soon. I know that the power users amongst you couldn't care less about these platforms, but some of you may start realizing that integration is the actual future of computers. Soon we'll be happy to say goodbye to the good old desktop PC, when it starts to get replaced by smaller, more practical and much more user-friendly products. The 810, SiS620, SiS630, VIA MVP4, .... are not yet advanced enough to replace a PC, but they are marking the first step away from the loud, hot and clumsy machines we use to sit in front of today.

As soon as the new Pentium III with 133 MHz front side bus, also known as 'Coppermine', will be released in September, Intel will introduce the '810e' chipset, which has two major differences to 810. The supported FSB will be 133 MHz and the display cache will be clocked at 133 MHz as well. For some crazy reason the RAM is still supposed to run at 100 MHz, probably just to show how much Intel disapproves PC133.