Compaq, H-P and IBM Want
Intel to Endorse Circuitry Design
By DEAN TAKAHASHI and EVAN RAMSTAD
Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Three of Intel Corp.'s biggest customers are challenging the chip giant's
influence over a key piece of technology within the personal computer.
Compaq Computer Corp., Hewlett-Packard Co. and International
Business Machines Corp. have created a new design for circuitry that
could double the speed of data movement within a PC, people familiar
with the matter said. The companies are trying to persuade Intel to endorse
the concept, in place of a technology Intel is developing that they fear
could require royalty payments to the big semiconductor company.
Intel's popular microprocessors give it huge
influence over the way PCs are designed, and
the company now sets standards that dictate
how other important components are
designed. The companies' proposal is a rare
instance of the customer taking the initiative
from the powerful supplier. If the proposal
catches hold, the new technology could give
the three companies an edge over rivals such
as Dell Computer Corp., which has been grabbing market share in
personal computers and also in more-powerful machines called servers.
The three computer makers declined comment on the matter but have
privately circulated a draft news release describing their technology. A
formal announcement was scheduled for next week but has been
postponed.
Robert Manneta, an Intel spokesman at the company's Santa Clara, Calif.,
headquarters, said the company hadn't yet reviewed the technical
specification from the trio of companies and therefore couldn't comment on
the situation.
Control of the 'Bus'
At issue is the circuitry, called a bus, that funnels data and instructions
between the computer's main brain, the microprocessor, and peripherals
such as a hard disk drive or networking device. Since 1991, many
computer makers have used a technology called the Peripheral
Component Interconnect, or PCI, which was championed by Intel but is
now governed by an industry committee. Partly because of the open
process, the PCI technology has been adopted by companies such as
Apple Computer Inc. and Sun Microsystems Inc. that don't use Intel
chips.
"Control of the PCI bus is a very important issue because it is a technology
that is used widely throughout industry, not just in Intel computers," said
Nathan Brookwood, an analyst at Dataquest Inc.
The PCI technology has been upgraded a couple of times to move data,
but it has still become a bottleneck in view of the rapid speed increases in
other parts of computers. Compaq, H-P and IBM began working together
a year ago when they learned that Intel seemed likely to propose a
proprietary successor to PCI, people familiar with their plan said.
Intel hasn't publicly described its own next-generation bus, but the
companies believed that Intel would seek royalty payments from other
makes of accessory chips that use the technology, as it has with some
other PC components. That prospect could have locked the big computer
makers into paying more for components.
Own Technology
By developing their own technology, by contrast, the companies could
develop accessory chips of their own that could give them an edge over
other PC makers. Their proposal, dubbed PCI-X, would speed up bus
circuitry to operate at a speed of 133 megahertz compared with 66
megahertz today. It would be particularly suited to servers that need the
highest possible data-transfer speed, and isn't expected to be used in
mainstream PCs for some time. Representatives of the three companies
presented the proposal to an Intel executive this week. People familiar with
the situation said he was surprised by the situation but agreed to consider
it.
An official at one of the companies characterized the proposal as a
"warning shot to Intel about trying to own a technology that should be an
open standard."
But Bill Miller, another Intel spokesman, said either of the bus proposals
could be reviewed by the PCI standard committee, and disputed the idea
that Intel could impose any proprietary technology on the group. "It's an
open process," he said, adding, "We don't control it." He also said, "Intel is
always looking with the rest of the industry for ways to improve the Intel
platform so that it keeps up with the pace of our microprocessors."
Still, analysts suspected Intel would try to resist the three companies'
proposal. "It's kind of a loss of face if Intel loses control because they like
to have complete authority over the hardware platform," said Peter
Glaskowsky, analyst at Micro Design Resources Inc. in Sunnyvale, Calif. |
