ATI ships Xpress 1250 chipset for Intel

ATI has officially launched their latest chipset for the mobile market - the Xpress 1250. The chipset has support for Intel Pentium M, Celeron M, Core Solo and Core Duo Yonah and Merom processors and promises full support for Windows Vista. The chips integrated graphics solution is based on the X700 architecture though there are no specifics on the number of shader pipelines or clock speeds. The 1250 should be able to manage noticeably stronger performance relative to its older X300-based Xpress 200 sibling however.

The other major feature ATI are incorporating into this latest chipset is full AVIVO support for better video performance. Also in relation to that is the inclusion of full HDCP, though this must be enabled by the notebook manufacturer by way of an extra TDMS transmitter. ATI have also included a full x16 PCI-E slot for expansion and when paired with the SB600 south bridge, the Xpress 1250 will support HD audio, 10 USB ports and 4 SATA II ports.

The new chipset is expected to show up in notebooks from major manufacturers soon with NEC getting the ball rolling early via their LaVie L Advanced Type laptop.