Gigabyte Technology is said to have tied up with Nvidia again with plans to launch motherboards based on the chip designer’s nForce2 chipsets, according to sources.

A former member of the Nvidia camp for graphics card production, Gigabyte switched sides to join ATI Technologies group in 2002.

According to sources, Gigabyte’s product adoption is limited to Nvidia’s core logic chipsets only. But the fierce competition between Nvidia and ATI as well as ATI’s recent chip shipments to some of its own-brand card-making clients has triggered market speculation about whether Gigabyte’s move is a gesture of protest.

ATI has encountered tight supply in its graphics chips lately, especially its high-end products like the Radeon 9800 series, which have received good market response to their improved performance. As the company usually prioritizes OEM orders, its own-brand card-production customers, such as Gigabyte, have been unable to obtain sufficient chips to make cards.

Nvidia’s nForce2 chipsets support K7 processors from Advanced Micro Devices (AMD). Shipments of the chipsets are now estimated at 500,000 units per month, chipset company sources said.

Despite the possible adoption, products based on K7 chipsets from VIA Technologies are expected to account for most of Gigabyte’s AMD-platform offerings, as the nForce2 is generally regarded as a high-end product with its support for dual-channel DDR400 memory and 400MHz FSB (front-side bus) speed.

Source: Digitimes