***VIA and SiS To Release New Strategy for 2001
VIA and Silicon Integrated Systems (SiS), chipset designer
companies in Taiwan, posted lower revenues in the fourth quarter
as the downstream buyers began to make adjustments to inventory.
A VIA representative said that despite decreasing demand from the
PC sector, revenues remained fairly constant. VIA is confident
that things will pick up again once 2001 strategies kick in at
the beginning of the year. The introduction of the Apollo Pro
KM133 and Twister DDR chipsets in November has put the company in
a position to take more than 50% of the global market. VIA also
expects to sell more than 10 million VIA-Cyrix III processors
next year.
SiS also reported that buyers were more cautious in November,
slimming down on inventory. Other factors like falling prices and
power outages in the Hsinchu Science-Based Industrial Park
occurred in November, also affected overall performance. SiS
hopes the market penetration of its SiS630 (for Intel slot 1 and
socket 370 CPU platforms) and SiS730S (for AMD Athlon, AMD Duron
CPU platforms) single chipsets will bring revenue back up to par.
The company is also boasting a yield higher than 50% percent for
its 0.18-micron processes. SiS claimed that the lawsuit filed by
United Microelectronics Company (UMC) will not influence their
monthly chipset shipments to PC Chips group.
Wave Issue 0101 1/4/01 Article 3-02