Nov 1, 2002 Chaintech launches new line of motherboard: Zenith.
Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Author - Shawn Sparks

As the group of journalists, distributors and developers gathered in the lobby of the Renaissance hotel in downtown Amsterdam, this journalist was rushing from the airport just in the nick of time. After a hot shower I was able to piece together a quick lunch from what was obviously a grand buffet. Back downstairs in the foyer of the meeting room, the gathering of attendees mingled while techno music sporadically pounded in the next room as the sound men made their final preparations.

Once seated and comfortable in the meeting room the lights dimmed and the room filled with smoke as a group of four go-go dancers took center stage. Nice attention getter. Now that we were all very attentive Geert van Dijk, CEO for Chaintech Europe took the microphone and introduced the Chaintech, nVidia and Promise representatives in attendance. AMD was an official sponsor of the event as well; however, there was no one in attendance to represent them.

After another writhing display from the go-go dancers Simon Ho, President of Chaintech Global gave a speech encompassing Chaintech's history and philosophy 'Affordable Luxury' is their stance. According to Simon Ho "[Every] user is entitled to have the latest technology for a reasonable price". He also covered some sales info and proudly informed us that Chaintech was the number one motherboard manufacturer in business growth as of July '02; gaining 50% in Q3 over Q2, and 35% over last year. He also mentioned that R&D is already set to launch their 2nd generation Apogee board, with AMD K8 support, in Q1 '03.

Daphne Su, VP of Chaintech Global Took the podium from Mr. Ho, and here's where it got interesting… She had a presentation showing the placement of Zenith at the top of their product line, and Apogee nestled between it and their soon to be released Summit lines (more on that in a minute). She assured us that Chaintech would remain on top by providing quality products based on the most current platforms and chipsets. There was talk of keeping the lines feature rich, stable compatible and most of all, affordable. Then we were visited once again by our fishnet clad beauties. However, this time they were pulling behind them a giant block of ice and carrying pick axes and sledge hammers. Inside the giant ice block was frozen the first Zenith board to be seen by the public. The dancers took turns bashing away until the block shattered and the board was officially released.

Nothing like scantily clad women swinging pick axes!

A few solid blows ought to do it...

...Finally they get through the ice...

Daphne Su holds up the frozen board.

After that we had a little break, presumably to catch our breath and huddle around the latest Chaintech masterpiece oohing and ahhing. I quickly sat down with Daphne Su, VP of Chaintech Taiwan and clarified a few things regarding future launches and product releases. What I learned was that Apogee was merely the beginning for a three stage line up; Zenith being the cream of the crop as far as features, specs and bundle, followed by Apogee and followed yet again by Summit. Here's a breakdown of what you can expect from each line:

Zenith:
nForce2 chipset, DualDDR, AGP 8x, RAID, Serial ATA support, USB 2.0, IEEE 1394 Fire Wire, Dual channel LAN onboard, 6ch Dolby Surround sound, full bundle including C-Box 2, 2 60cm round cables, 1 round floppy cable and a keychain.

Apogee:
nForce2 chipset, DualDDR, AGP 8x, RAID, USB 2.0, Dual channel LAN, 6ch Dolby Surround sound, bundle includes 1 60cm round cable, C-Box 1. (Notably lacking are: Serial ATA, RAID, and Fire Wire support, as well as a slightly weaker bundle)

Summit:
Same specs as Apogee, with no bundled extras.

The release is scheduled as follows:
Q2 '02 Zenith
Q1 '03 Zenith / Apogee (AMD K/8), new C-Box with 7-in-1 smart card reader
Q2 '03 Intel 'Sprintel' chipset w/ 667MHz FSB

I heard no dates for release of Summit, but I would assume that they will be available soon.

After a little while, the lights dimmed once more and our friendly go-go dancers took center stage again. When they had finished their routine we were joined by Alain Tiquet, Marketing director for nVidia Europe. He went into depth about the features of nForce2. (Wayne covered them very well in his preview here, so I will leave you to follow the link to get the info.) Mr. Tiquet also went over some of the nVidia exclusive features that we all love so much, UDA (Unified Driver Architecture), shading and T&L techniques etc… He then hinted at some of what to expect from NV30. All ears perked as we got a little taste of what's to come.

It seems that NV30 will bring Precision Color with it, providing the power to create more life-like images. Also the power to create real-time emotions through huge rendering improvements; there will also be great leaps in advanced shading techniques. He had some images to emphasize his points which were very impressive, although a few still images can never capture the effects of a smooth running card. He hinted at "… the coming weeks and months…" however, there were no solid dates publicly announced. I got a little more than that though, but you have to read on to see…

Alain Tiquet clarifies a few points for the audience

By the time Chaintech and nVidia gave their presentations and the go-go dancers held our attention for so long, there was not much time or focus left for Promise to have a fair shake at center-stage. Promise is the company that is working on Serial ATA (SATA) for the market, and is the company responsible for the SATA controller on the Chaintech boards. The company gave a brief but informative show, and announced that Seagate and Maxtor will more than likely have SATA drives available by the end of the month. Also suggested was that SATA2 is nearly ready for launch, with SATA3 not far behind, so when SATA takes off, it looks like it will be running.

That was the end of the official presentations. Chaintech was gracious enough to rent a boat to tour the canals that run throughout Amsterdam. The boat was crowded with 50 of us, but the buffet and open bar made it comfortable. Amsterdam is a beautiful city, and the view from the canals was stunning. Once we docked again, it was time for dinner.

Cheers! The boat ride through the canals was fantastic! Guus Sprujit was our host for the event.

After a few drinks, even my camera had blurry vision.

Tuxedos and white linen were abundant, as well as good wine and conversation. I sat at a table alone, and was soon joined by none other than Simon Ho, Daphne Su, and Barbie Lin, the entire host of Chaintech Global representatives. I took the opportunity to interview Mr. Ho about the future of Chaintech, as well as the elusive NV30. From this interview, I gathered that Chaintech is working on 3 additional product lines that are neither motherboards nor VGA cards. He would not divulge to me exactly what they are, but from his certainty, I am sure we will be excited. And finally, I grilled him on NV30 and here's what I got: "...NV30 will launch at Comdex Las Vegas November 18th and in Moscow November 25th. The OEM market will most likely absorb all NV30 chips and there will probably not be a retail NV30 board until January '03…" This was a sad reality, but from a very reliable source, and it all made sense to me. In other words, don't hold your breath for a card, even after the launch November 18th.

Dinner is served.

The next morning we were presented with a retail box of the new Zenith 7NJS to take for review. After that we were on our own… I stayed in Amsterdam for a few days beyond that, and I fear that if I gave you the details I would no longer be respected… So let's just leave it at that shall we? Look for the full review of the board in a couple of weeks after I have a chance to really go over it.

 

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