Intel reveals Y2K chipset plans

Intel unveils a new chipset lineup next year to fill the gaps left in its product line after the company's last-minute decision to support PC133 and double-data-rate PC266 SDRAM, industry sources said.

Samples of the Intel 815, or Solano - successor to the popular 440BX as the company's mainstream chip set - reportedly will be available next January. The device, which will compete with Via Technologies rival Apollo Pro 133, will support PC133 SDRAM, an AGP 4X graphics port, and external graphics cards with frame buffer memory of at least 32 megaBytes.

Other products include a DDR chipset for desktop PCs, which could represent an upgrade to Solano's support of single-data-rate PC133, and a yet-to-be-named DDR PC266-enabled chipset for servers that will sample late in 2000 for an early 2001 launch.

Sources added that an Intel 870 server chipset now in development might also be the chipset that supports the upcoming 64-bit Itanium (formerly Merced) processor and DDR SDRAM.

A detailed report is posted online at www.techweb.com.