Intel may start buying SiS chipsets for low end motherboards - and UMC, who owns shares in SiS, may start manufacturing SiS chipsets at three of its fabs instead of the current one to help SiS meet the increased demand.
This move would be an outgrowth of Intel stopping production of some 865 and 915 series chipsets, which would mean that Intel could not supply enough entry level chipsets for its own Intel branded motherboards; thus Intel may for a time ship SiS chipset based motherboards!
As soon as Intel transitions Socket 775 and its 945 chipset to the lower end of the market, presumably it will stop buying SiS chipsets - however that will leave a bigger slice of the low end market to SiS, Via and ULi.
Intel is concentrating on the higher margin chipsets, leaving the smaller manufacturers to fight for the lower profits available on mass market entry level motherboards.
