Intel: ATI Bus License Still Go (R600)

Imy · 26 Jul 2006 at 10:17

I thought some of you might be interested in this bit of news.

DailyTech said:
ATI is still go for RD600

Intel insiders have confirmed to DailyTech that the license for ATI to manufacture chipsets for the Intel bus has not been revoked. ATI's board of directors recently approved a takeover bid from AMD which would make ATI a division of AMD if approved.

A report on The Inquirer yesterday claims "ATI had its chipset bus license pulled, or at least not renewed by Intel." Aside from the fact that it is probably not legal for Intel to retract the agreement, the cross-license agreement between Intel and ATI has not come up for review either. It's not impossible to fathom that Intel would opt to not renew the ATI cross-license agreement, but at this time the agreement is still working and will continue to function until an announcement is made by Intel and ATI.

ATI's upcoming RD600 chipset is slated to be one of the most ambitious ATI chipsets to date, bringing Intel's Conroe and ATI's Triple Play physics to the table. However, the most recent ATI launch schedule still puts this chipset in for a 2006 launch, likely before the AMD-ATI merger would be finalized. Even then, it is difficult to ascertain if Intel would opt to not renew the bus license as it may take ATI years to fully assimilate into AMD. AMD president Dirk Meyer outlined that ATI and AMD would begin co-development of products in 2008.

Specifically with regard to RD600, Cameron Wilmot at TweakTown has confirmed that DFI's LanParty RD600 motherboard is still slated for launch. When DailyTech approached DFI San Jose General Manager Jacky Huang with regard to RD600, Huang replied "RD600 LANParty is still in development, and there have been no announcements to stop development." ATI's RS700 chipset, on the other hand, would be a chipset definitely in jeopardy if the license agreement was to terminate.

Intel is also dependent on ATI's core logic division, as Intel even has some Intel-branded ATI motherboards in its portfolio. However, there is no replacement for the ATI Xpress 1100 Grant Country motherboard with the Bearlake generation of Intel motherboards.

Source

Stelly · 26 Jul 2006 at 10:19

Let see what happens then, looks like business as usual

Stelly

Imy · 26 Jul 2006 at 10:27

The RD600 looks like its going to be a very impressive chipset. I'm looking forward to see how stable motherboards are based on this chipset and how well they overclock. I'm certainly sold on the paper-features.

Stelly · 26 Jul 2006 at 10:31

Imy said:
The RD600 looks like its going to be a very impressive chipset. I'm looking forward to see how stable motherboards are based on this chipset and how well they overclock. I'm certainly sold on the paper-features.

I'm waiting on two things...

One see how both the RD600 and nforce 5 play out

Two see how the next gen graphics cards preform

Stelly

Explicit · 26 Jul 2006 at 12:22

The Inquirer has also admitted they were wrong (no surprise there)

utherpendragon · 26 Jul 2006 at 14:25

I though the deal was the license was not going to be renewed when it expires at the end of the year?

Imy · 26 Jul 2006 at 14:43

Probably.

Without official confirmation that could also be as inaccurate as the original stories on this subject were.

-|ScottFree|- · 26 Jul 2006 at 15:11

ATI's Triple Play physics

The first I have heard of it myself, on reading the article above. It explains that ATI assume people are going to buy 3 G cards having 2xG-cards running crossfire and x1 G-card solely concentrating on the physics. I suppose there are going to be some that buy but at this point there are only 2 games that support physics!!

Imy · 26 Jul 2006 at 16:22

I think the idea is that when people upgrade their graphics card, they can 'demote' their old one to be used as a dedicated physics processor, while still being able to run their graphics in Crossfire mode.

For those who have/want to buy a card especially for physics processing, you'll be able to pick up a regular X1600 series graphics card for the job and it will cost half as much as the Ageia solutions.

I have no idea how well this system will work in reality but even if its rubbish, you've got a spare 16x slot you can use for something else.

-|ScottFree|- · 28 Jul 2006 at 06:00

Imy said:
I think the idea is that when people upgrade their graphics card, they can 'demote' their old one to be used as a dedicated physics processor, while still being able to run their graphics in Crossfire mode.

For those who have/want to buy a card especially for physics processing, you'll be able to pick up a regular X1600 series graphics card for the job and it will cost half as much as the Ageia solutions.

I have no idea how well this system will work in reality but even if its rubbish, you've got a spare 16x slot you can use for something else.

You'll just need a case the size of a bus to fit them all in!!!

Imy · 28 Jul 2006 at 09:57

Why?

They're only expansion cards.... The extra PCI-E x16 slot will probably just replace one of the PCI slots on an ATX form factor motherboard. The layout will probably be similar to how it is on the Intel Extreme D975bx-304 975X board.