Intel Testimony Challenges Claim Of Microsoft Pressure>MSFT
11/10/98
Dow Jones News Service
(Copyright (c) 1998, Dow Jones & Company, Inc.)
By Mark Boslet
WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)--An Intel Corp. (INTC) executive said technical problems rather than Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) pressure led to the cancellation of a large part of the company's NSP software work.
In a videotaped deposition for the Microsoft antitrust trial, Intel's Ronald Whittier said a determining factor in sidelining the project was that it didn't work with Microsoft's upcoming Windows 95. Disrupting the work was not simply "because Mr. (Bill) Gates (Microsoft's Chairman) was upset," Whittier said during his deposition.
Microsoft attorney Steve Holley used the testimony, presented today in court, to counter Intel Vice President Steven McGeady's claim the project was discontinued because Microsoft threatened not to support Intel's next generation chip along with its chip technology MMX.
Microsoft also was able to put computer makers "on hold with (an) NSP chill," according to an October 1995 e-mail from Gates.
The NSP, or native signal processing, software work became a major focus of the trial on Tuesday as Holley cross examined McGeady. The software was designed to work in conjunction with Windows to enable a computer to "dance and sing" by better handling graphical and audio data.
But the program was designed to run on Windows 3.1, not Windows 95, and was ready to hit the market in the spring of 1995, only four months or so before Windows 95.
Although the pressure from Gates was a factor, "we were looking out for our own best interests" and didn't want to compromise Windows 95, Whittier said.
And yet, the pressure on former Intel Chief Executive Andrew Grove was significant. In a June 1995 e-mail to Gates, Grove identifies NSP as a "key to the growth of the PC industry."
"Merely being critical of what we have undertaken is not helpful," Grove wrote. "Telling us to go away is not helpful; nor is it practical: we ... genuinely believe that the end results of the NSP initiative are vital to our long-term success, so we have to persevere."
Separately, Microsoft attorneys filed a motion before Federal District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson asking that part of Apple Computer Inc. (AAPL) Senior Vice President Avadis Tevanian Jr.'s testimony be removed from the record. Tevanian had testified Microsoft sabotaged Apple's QuickTime software by inserting error messages in Windows.
Tevanian suspects misconduct by Microsoft but could not prove his claim in court, the motion states. Microsoft also didn't get an adequate chance to cross examine him because Jackson told attorney Theodore Edelman to move to another subject, the motion says.
-By Mark Boslet; 202 862-9285
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