Cross post from Intel board - Intel Liability?
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x38.deja.com
3) In August, there was a little pressure from Intel to keep manufacturers from making Athlon boards - but it has been steadily increasing. This is where I will have to change my vote from previously. The explanation is that since the BX/ZX chipset has been contrained (due to Intel slowing down production, with plans to stop production in Q1 '00), Intel has begun using it as leverage to punish those who make non-Intel based boards. Since the i820 was going to replace it, most manufacturers expected to be able to use that chipset in place of the BX (about 70% to 90% of all board sales are BX boards, depending on manufacturer, according to AOpen). When the i820 was pulled, manufacturers were left with *only* the BX chipset as their choice through the Xmas season. Now, nobody wants to piss off Intel, and Intel is using it to it's fullest advantage.
Based upon this info, I have to admit that this may be the reason that Gigabyte and GVC are not marketing their boards anymore, rather than strictly chipset issues (though AOpen says those do exist). Here is the telling comment.. I asked "If you knew for a fact that every Athlon board you made would sell, would you make one now despite the pressure from Intel?". The answer was "No - we don't know the future of the Athlon, and to piss off Intel at this time would be suicide".
A different source (financial analyst) told me yesterday that his information says that AMD claims Intel is using scare tactics on manufacturers. He also said that while the board manufacturers are denying this, they all are saying they won't have an Athlon board until Q1 '00 - suspiciously close to when the BX chipset will be gone anyway...
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Looks like AMD is putting a case together. If it follows the pattern of yesterday's settlement in a similar case,
search.nytimes.com.
JC's has an interesting story on the issue.
jc-news.com
It looks like it would cost Intel a quarter of $25 Billion or a little over $6 Billion. AMD could sure use that cash, too.
Dan |
