ATI preparing five AMD Socket M2 chipsets

Five new chipsets for the AMD Socket M2 K8 platform which will be launched next year will are being developed by ATI. AMD plans to use the M2 940-pin socket for all of its single and dual-core processors in 2006.

For the high-end segment ATI is preparing the RD580 and RD580C. These chipsets will feature CrossFire support and will compete with NVIDIA's nForce 4 SLI chipsets. Chipsets should arrive in retail stores by the time AMD launches its Socket M2 .
>br> For the OEM and SI (System Integrator) market the company is developing the RX485 and RS485 which are updates of the current RX480 and RS482 chipsets. The integrated RS485 chipset will feature a graphics solution based on the Radeon X300.

Then there's also the RS690 which is an upgraded version of the RS485 with more graphics performance. Volume production of the RS690 is slated for Q2 2006.

And for Intel processors ATI expects its RC410 chipset will continue to sell well. The company hopes to sell more than 5 million RC410s this quarter and shipments should hit another record in the final quarter of this year.