Re: Do you have a link that shows AMD's access to the Alpha patents?
Hmmm, AMD seems to have all its Alpha license issues covered. Can Intel use the designs developed by the Alpha Processor team during the past 2 years without paying AMD?
In addition to the processor program, Samsung's subsidiary, Alpha Processors Inc. (API), is working with AMD to develop an Alpha core-logic chip set called Caspian. Slated for production in the third quarter of 2000, Caspian will support both the Alpha and Athlon processors using the Alpha EV6 bus architecture common to both devices. The cooperative effort ultimately will benefit the processors and their makers alike, said Daeje Chin, Samsung Electronics' executive vice president and chief technical officer, and chairman and chief executive of API....
...Ironically, the Athlon/Alpha chipset development deal is getting under way just as Compaq is asking the U.S. Federal Trade Commission to overturn an earlier consent decree forcing it to license the Alpha technology to AMD and Samsung. Compaq inherited the decree as part of its 1998 purchase of Digital Equipment Corp. Now, however, Compaq says that while it will continue to work with Sunnyvale, Calif.-based AMD and Samsung, it doesn't want to operate under a government-imposed mandate.
In related news, Samsung's Chin said API is developing a chip set, called Tasman, to support four- to six-processor servers using either the Alpha or Athlon chips. Additionally, the Samsung/Compaq alliance will work with AMD to adapt Athlon's Lightning Data Transfer I/O interface to function in Alpha processors with data speeds of 1 to 3.2 gigabytes per second, noted Jeff Borkowski, API's vice president of sales and marketing.
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