Intel Corp is to ship OEM manufacturers technical details of its ‘Whitney’ chip set this week. Whitney, which offers integrated 3D graphics, will be aimed at the sub-$1,000 PC market, where Intel is concerned about the unfavorable shift in product mix towards cheap chips (CI No 3,450). However, the new chipset could spark off a fresh round of antitrust allegations, centering on fears that Intel’s alleged PC processor monopoly will expand into the graphics field. According to press reports, the chipset will combine the company’s i470 Graphics engine with a 440LLX low-cost core logic chipset (CI No 3,351). It will be used with a 330Mhz Celeron processor with 128kbytes of level 2 cache. An Intel spokesperson refused to comment but did say that the company was pursuing the integration of the graphics accelerator function into the chipset. The chipset is expected to sample by the end of this year with production commencing in the first quarter of 1999.
