Aug 30, 2000

First International Computer Inc. (FIC), Taiwan's PC and motherboard manufacture recently claimed that its AZ11 motherboard has been certified by Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. of the U.S., making it the first motherboard to support AMD's newly developed Athlon 1.1 GHz central processor.

The firm said that it is now delivering about 70,000 AZ11s a month. FIC expects its total shipments of motherboards, including the new model, to reach 700,000 to 800,000 a month, putting it on track to deliver 6.5 million to seven million units in 2000.

FIC said that it has moved all of its motherboard production to Guangzhou in Mainland China's Guangdong province. Its original motherboard plant in Linko, northern Taiwan, has been modified to manufacture notebook PCs.

The AZ11 adopts Via Technologies Inc.'s KT133 chipsets and supports AMD's Socket-A processors. AMD unveiled its latest Socket-A Athlon processor at the Computex Taipei show, one of the world's top-three computer fairs, held in early June in Taiwan. FIC also plans to soon demonstrate its solutions to support Intel's 1.3 GHz processor.

FIC is also developing wireless network card products. The company plans to soon debut a PCMCIA card and a networking base station (Access Point), with commercial production scheduled to begin in October this year. Due to improved circuitry design and power efficiency, the PCMCIA card would have a communication range 1.5-fold greater than rival products.

FIC also plans in November this year to unveil wireless communication products based on Bluetooth technology.