SIS turns in quarterly profit

CHIPSET MAKER SIS managed to turn in its first quarterly profit for two years, claiming that sales of its Pentium 4 chipsets boosted its sales and revenues.
A statement from the company said that sales of Pentium 4 chipsets, for which it has a licence from Intel, amounted to 40 per cent of its revenues in the first quarter.

The profit, of US$747,000, was posted on sales of $94 million, a rise of nearly 50 per cent quarter on quarter, year on year.

Unlike Via, SIS was given a licence to make Pentium 4 chipsets by Intel. Intel and Via are currently locked into a number of court cases worldwide, including in the UK.

Intel refused to give Via a licence, leading the Taiwanese firm to allege antitrust and patent infringements. Those matters remain unsettled, but Via continues to ship Pentium 4 chipsets and motherboards using its own products.

A few weeks ago, we reported that SIS had also shipped some Pentium 4 chipsets without a licence, leading Intel to rap it across the knuckles.

But behind all of this is a vicious price war – SIS has the overhead of its royalty fee for the Pentium 4, Intel is engaged in slashing prices on its chipsets, while the motherboard makers are demanding cheaper and cheaper products as consolidation appears more likely and it's more and more difficult for them to sell their products on having special features.

SIS now intends to release its Xabre graphics products in mid-May, and although it has a list of would-be customers, ATI and Nvidia still seem to have much of this market in their grip. µ