TAIPEI, Taiwan -- Taiwan's AOpen Inc. must be in hot water. The Taipei-based PC motherboard company here Friday issued an apology to Intel Corp. for putting out a news release that pre-announced the details and launch date of Intel's 845 chip set, code-named Brookdale.
AOpen is now asking the news media to remove a news release dated Aug. 27 from "any print, electronic, or other form'' that pre-announced the the details of Brookdale. That chip set supports SDRAM memory for PCs based on Intel's Pentium 4 processor line.
On Aug. 27, AOpen, a subsidiary of Acer Inc., issued a release to announce a new PC board line that supports Intel's Pentium 4 microprocessor and 845 chip set.
The trouble is that the Taipei-based company jumped the gun: Intel will not officially launch the 845 until Sept. 10--in spite of leaking product details to the media for months.
The "unintentionally" announced news release for AOpen's so-called AX4BS and MX4BS motherboards should have been announced on Sept. 10--not Aug. 27, according to the company.
"The news release for the AX4BS and MX4BS motherboards that was announced on August 27, 2001, to media and industry professionals would not have occurred if it had gone through our usual release procedures," explained Tony Yang, marketing manager of Aopen, based in Taipei.
"Due to an internal oversight, that press release was not authorized by AOpen Taiwan and it inadvertently created a negative impression of not only AOpen, but also of Bernie Tsai, CEO of AOpen Inc.," Yang said.
In response to the erroneous announcement, Tsai also apologized to Intel. "We have worked with Intel Corporation for years and have consistently collaborated with Intel for all announcements and events," Tsai said.
"As a strategic business partner with Intel, we understand how important it is to not only work with Intel fully at all levels, but to also respect our relationship," Tsai said.
"AOpen Inc. apologizes for unintentionally making the announcement and regrets any problems it may have caused for Intel Corporation," he added.
