| Press Release
*****For immediate use October 5, 1998 NEC, ALi, SiS and VIA Push PC Memory Bandwidth Over 1 GB/sNEC Corporation (NEC) today announced Virtual Channel Memory (VCM) support from three major PC chipset vendors. Acer Laboratories Inc. (ALi), Silicon Integrated Systems (SiS) and VIA Technologies, Inc. are currently developing and will soon supply new Socket-7 and Slot-1 PC chipsets that support NEC's Virtual Channel Synchronous DRAM (VC-SDRAM). Used with 133 megahertz (MHz) VC-SDRAMs, the new chipsets will allow PC OEMs to ship systems with memory bandwidth of over 1 gigabyte per second (GB/s). Compared to today's PC systems, this enhancement offers between one-and-a-half to two times an increase in memory bandwidth. The first chipset products are expected to be available in 4th quarter 1998, and a live system demonstration built around these chipsets will be shown for the first time at the upcoming Comdex in Las Vegas. The new chipsets will feature scalable front-side bus (FSB) speeds ranging from 66 to 133 MHz and VC-SDRAM support up to 133 MHz. In addition to supporting VC-SDRAMs, the new chipsets will support PC-100/66 SDRAM and EDO memories. CPU support will include processors with programmable FSB speeds of 66 to 133 MHz. All of the chipsets will feature full AGP support and some will have an integrated 3D graphics controller. The support of this leading group of chipset vendors for VCM further validates NEC's continuing efforts to make VCM the de facto memory core technology standard. Each of these core logic suppliers has shown tremendous success in providing chipset solutions for value-priced PCs, and their VCM support in partnership with NEC is expected to help enable OEMs to offer full-featured PCs in the fastest-growing segment of the PC market. Based on International Data Corporation's PC estimates, Ali, SiS and VIA are dominant chipset providers in the value-PC segment, currently holding a 30 percent market share of all PCs shipped in 1998. It is estimated that collectively, these three chipset vendors hold almost a 70 percent share of the value segment within the PC market. With the value-priced PC shipments rapidly increasing each year, it is likely that these players will continue to gain market share by offering innovative features such as VCM. About NEC, ALi, SiS, VCM and VIA, please see the attached sheet. ***
|
||||||||||
