The Asrock brand is a spin off of Asustek subsidiary Hua Ching, and reports said yesterday it had started shipping its motherboards and could supply as many as 200,000 units a month.

But that has caused windiness at Asustek itself, according to a confidential memo seen by the INQUIRER.

The memo claims that Asrock is using the Asus name to sell its products and that is causing a certain amount of confusion in the marketplace.

It even threatens legal action against Asrock customers who associate these motherboards with Asustek, in a surprising example of Chinese Walls.

The quality of Asrock boards is entirely different from the quality of Asustek boards, the memo continues.

Asustek started the spun off company to combat a threat from Elite Computer Systems, which has cut costs to offer low priced boards and increase its market share.

Oddly enough, Digitimes yesterday reported an Asustek source as saying there is no confusion between the positioning of Asrock and Asustek motherboards.

But the internal memo shows that while that may be the public position, there's already confusion in the marketplace. µ