Generally, manufacturers will not be greatly affected by the latest timetable, since the two chipsets are not truly new products in the market. Taiwan-based chipset designers, such as VIA Technologies and Silicon Integrated Systems (SiS), already launched DDR333-supporting Pentium 4 chipsets a few quarters earlier. Moreover, as the latest chipsets are compatible with the current 845G and 845E, board makers do not have to spend a great deal of time in designing supporting motherboards.
Still, motherboard makers said that with a fixed timetable, they are more capable of adjusting their chipset inventories.
Intel explained that the delay was due to technical problems. However, board makers speculated that Intel is more likely trying to prolong the lifecycle of its 845G and 845E products with the new launch time. Meanwhile, market analysts said that the schedule change may also suggest that Intel indeed has certain worries about PC market business in the second half.
Source: DigiTimes