brian z <<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.>> thank you for the article. Intel's PCI bus is currently firmly entrenched. unseating this technology would take at most two years and at best one year. i don't see the threat to dell.
ibm, cpq and hp are proposing a new PCI standard. they are not proposing a proprietary PCI standard owned exclusively by the three companies and requiring compensation. if intel meets the challenge they could (a) also operate under the standard, (b) reject the standard and offer their own without royalty payment , or (c) reject the standard and offer their own with royalty compensation due.
since 85% of the market operates with intel processors, intel must "rewire" their own processor to accept the proposed three company based PCI-X standard. if they choose to "rewire" their own processor to accept the PCI-X processor, everyone, including Dell remains on equal footing (as is the current case). if Intel chooses NOT to accept the PCI-X standard, and wire their chips to accept ONLY the new intel PCI bus, then this decision hurts, not Dell, but the other three players, as the other three players would need to go to AMD, Cyrix or their own devices to produce a cpu which accepts the PCI-X standard. using squarely AMD, Cyrix, or IBM for the cpu would probably put these three at a disadvantage as they'd need to develop a cpu which competes against Intel's proven Pentium, Merced or Xzeon. it is also possible, though remote, that Intel could wire their cpu to accept both the PCI-X and their own standard; at which case it would be most probable no royalty payments would be due Intel; again not hurting Dell.
Intel has been quiet about it's new PCI bus (currently working in the lab). Intel's could well be faster than 66megaherz and may have already antiquated the threesome's PCI-X proposal. if intel introduces an 88megaherz PCI bus, for example or other increment, the PCI-X is obsolete and the other three players would most likely go along with paying royalties anyhoo.
ibm is looking for an achilles heal for intel not dell. this ain't it.
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