I've been looking at the recent chipset releases from ULi (formerly ALi) and they're good enough to compete with the market leaders for AMD chipsets, nVidia. Yet even though they've released two strong chipsets the general opinion of the company is largely a negative one. I must ask, when will people start judging a company based on the present and not the past.
Since the re-brand it's clear ULi have put an awful lot of cash into R&D and it's paid off, they now have a fantastic product in the M1697 that I believe with the backing of the major players (abit, asus, msi) could be 'the' chipset to own.
Now what's worrying me is, nVidia have recently acquired ULi and while I do not know the in-and-outs of the take-over I’m hoping nVidia will not gobble up ULi and fail to see the progress the company has made these past few years. Ideally I’d like to see a re-brand of the M1697 which nVidia could then push into the market using its influence.
I'm sure there are already plans by Abit, Asus, MSI to develop boards based on the ULi but it could be so much more if they considered it a high-end chipset and in my eyes all it seems to be lacking to qualify is one word, nVidia M1697.