Digitimes claims that Intel's NDA is worthless after its upcoming H55 and H57 (Ibex Peak) chipsets were spotted available for sale in Taiwan.

Asustek and Intel's own-brand motherboards are being flogged by Taiwan retailers despite the fact motherboard makers were required to sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) prohibiting such activities before the scheduled chipset launch on January 7. Motherboard makers are mightily miffed because Intel had gone to the trouble of making them sign an NDA prohibiting the release of any information about the chipsets before Intel's official launch announcement. Normally makers are not required to sign this type of NDA.

Intel claimed it was jumpy because they are the first Nehalem platforms targeting the mainstream market. They are also the first to introduce support for Flexible Display Interface (FDI), Intel's new architecture which will see integrated graphics moved from the chipset and onto the CPU.

Asustek is likely to have just pushed its luck by breaking the embargo. It claims that it abides by its agreement with Intel and has not authorised any of its agents to make H55 and H57 products available for sale. However there is no explanation for the Intel branded products also being sold.

After all if Intel cannot police its own channel, why should vendors worry about it. Intel told Digitimes that there is a lot of interest and excitement around its new technologies before the official launch. Intel motherboards have since disappeared from display in channel retail shops in Taipei.