Carl and Intel Investors - The "Clones R Us" group gets another member.
SGS Thomson plans on Joining AMD, Cyrix and IDT in the "Clones R Us" category.
They are going after a Slot 1, Pentium II COPY!
Read it and weep!
Paul
{======================}
techweb.cmp.com
Posted: 11:45 p.m. EST, 4/3/98
SGS-Thomson to clone
Intel's Slot 1 interface
By Anthony Cataldo
SANTA CLARA, Calif. - SGS-Thomson
Microelectronics has tipped plans to develop a
Pentium II-class processor that uses Intel
Corp.'s jealously guarded P6-processor bus,
the key interface behind Intel's proprietary Slot
1 processor connector. While timing for the
launch remains unclear, SGS-Thomson could
become the first competitor of Intel's to clone
the Slot 1 interface and thereby break open the
market for drop-in replacements of Pentium
II-compatible processors.
Observers speculate that other X86 cloners
may invoke their own foundry agreements with
IBM as a way to shelter them from Intel's legal
wrath, should they decide to reverse-engineer
the interface. IBM is believed to have a broad
cross-licensing arrangement with Intel that
includes access to P6-related patents. But the
sources added that they don't expect Intel to pull
any punches in what could prove to be a
wide-ranging dispute over patent rights.
The P6 processor bus, which links to the
core-logic chip set, is a split-transaction,
1.5-V-swing Gunning transceiver logic
(GTL)-like system bus designed primarily to
provide better frequency scaling than previous
so-called Socket 7 systems and to support
multiprocessor platforms. Intel introduced the
bus for the Pentium Pro and later applied it as
the CPU bus for the Pentium II.
Intel has kept the technology close to the vest
since the Pentium Pro's debut. When it signed
a cross-licensing arrangement with Advanced
Micro Devices Inc. as part of a legal settlement,
it excluded access to P6 patents from the
agreement.
More recently, Intel has issued thinly veiled
warnings to third-party chip-set suppliers that
have announced Slot 1 core logic that's said to
connect to the P6 bus.
Intel has argued that the industry needs the new
bus technology to make better use of
bus-frequency bandwidth. Competitors counter
that a souped-up Socket 7 platform with a
100-MHz system bus is sufficient for
mainstream systems.
But Intel's strategy to drive Slot 1 into both the
low and high ends of the PC market puts its
competitors at risk of serving a diminishing
market for Socket 7 systems. That has
prompted some to consider designing their
own Slot 1 processors.
Intel spokespeople said that a number of
companies have rights to Intel's P6 patents but
that those companies would have to maneuver
around its trade secrets to be legally protected
should they design their own Slot 1 CPU. "Even
if you have a P6 bus patent, you still have to
deal with trade secrets surrounding the bus," a
spokesman said. "We take intellectual property
very seriously as a company, and we tend to
protect it aggressively."
Rivals would thus have to reverse-engineer
some key attributes of the P6, such as the
latches used to reduce the flight time of the bus,
and the open-drain structure of GTL+ interface
that lets the voltage scale down without
modifying the I/O.
SGS-Thomson (STM), which won a lawsuit
brought by Intel over STM's manufacture of
Cyrix-designed X86 processors, nonetheless
says it is designing its own fully Slot
1-compatible P6 architecture. STM is tapping
design expertise from Metaflow Technologies
Inc., which it acquired in 1997, according to
sources familiar with its plans.
Broad license claimed
STM claims it has the rights to all Intel patents
filed through 1999 as a result of its 1985
acquisition of Mostek, which had a broad
licensing agreement with Intel. Indeed, it was
that cross-licensing agreement that gave STM
the legal right to manufacture X86 devices for
Cyrix despite the court challenge by Intel.
Some analysts said STM has a good chance of
pulling off its challenge. "I believe
SGS-Thomson has a broad patent license with
Intel," said Richard Belgard, a consultant who
specializes in processor-related patent
analysis. "There are allegedly some things
concerning the P6 bus that Intel claims are
trade secrets, but they can be
reverse-engineered."
SGS-Thomson won't compete with Intel
head-on; rather, it wants to ensure that it can
continue to provide high-performance X86
processors to select OEMs and then integrate
the core with peripheral devices - such as
memory controllers, graphics controllers and I/O
functions - for low-cost PC appliances.
The first of the integrated processors, the ST
PC, will be based on a 486 core.
SGS-Thomson is also developing a
Pentium-class CPU core that is slated to be
production-ready in mid-1999. That core, too,
will eventually be integrated into the ST PC and
will serve low-end PC appliances for use in the
home.
"That's not a market that Intel and Microsoft are
necessarily going to dominate," an STM source
said. "There's no interest to be a head-on
competitor with Intel. We just plan on being in
the market. We'll probably support several key
accounts."
Even so, Intel in recent months has made a big
push into low-end systems with its Celeron line
of processors, Pentium II devices that will debut
without integrated L2 cache and add L2 in
subsequent releases. Intel expects the
processors to be used for the so-called Basic
PC and for a range of set-top boxes, running
Windows CE, priced as low as $399.
X86 competitors Advanced Micro Devices and
Integrated Device Technology, meanwhile,
have aligned themselves with IBM and may use
those foundry relationships as legal shelter from
Intel if they decide to include a P6 interface for
future CPUs, observers said.
Dave C“t‚, vice president of marketing for IDT
(Santa Clara, Calif.), said the company has no
immediate plans to move its WinChip
processors to Slot 1 but will instead stay
focused on Socket 7, targeting resellers
building desktop systems and notebooks. IDT
has collaborated with AMD and Cyrix on a
100-MHz system bus for Socket 7 boards, and
the three companies are codeveloping a set of
multimedia instructions that they say will rival
those used by Intel's Katmai, due next year.
But C“t‚ said IDT hasn't ruled out designing a
Slot 1 processor. "If our customers go to Slot 1,
we'll figure out how to get it done," he said.
"Does IBM and its cross-licensing agreement
with Intel help us? Potentially."
IDT does not have a cross-licensing agreement
with Intel, but so far it has escaped legal
challenge. The foundry relationship with IBM
"solves a bunch of patent problems" for IDT,
patent consultant Belgard said.
AMD (Sunnyvale, Calif.) may be similarly
protected should it decide to use a P6
interface. AMD's K7 will be mechanically
compatible with Slot 1 but will use the Alpha
bus. AMD officials have said they would have
preferred to use the P6 bus, had they not been
prohibited from doing so by previous settlement
terms with Intel. But some observers said AMD
could find a way into Slot 1 via IBM, though that
would hinge on whether AMD's agreement with
Intel excludes it from designing a processor
with the P6 bus interface altogether.
Cyrix, which is owned by National
Semiconductor Corp. (Santa Clara, Calif.),
secured access to P6 bus patents when it
extended its broad cross-licensing agreement
with Intel earlier this year. As of now, Slot 1
doesn't fit in with Cyrix's strategy of focusing on
low-cost, highly integrated processors. The
company used its own bus architecture for the
MediaGX and plans to continue that strategy
with its forthcoming MXi.
"The question is if [the P6 bus] is best for the
entry-level PC market, and the answer is no,"
said Steve Tobak, vice president of marketing
and communications for Cyrix. "The P6 bus
was created for multiprocessing systems, and it
carries a lot of baggage in mainstream desktop
implementations." But Cyrix is still considering
crafting its own Slot 1 architecture, and Tobak
claims it has secured the full rights to
implement the P6 bus as well as other
Intel-patented technologies well into the next
decade. Those rights came out of a deal
reached between Intel and National earlier this
year to drop a CPU patent suit Cyrix brought
against Intel and to extend the two companies'
existing cross-licensing agreement.
Addressing the recent Windows Hardware
Engineering Conference, Michael Slater,
principal analyst at MicroDesign Resources,
cited other top-tier companies that may have a
profit-driven interest in developing their own
CPU designs. IBM, for example, has rights to
sell Cyrix-designed 6X86 processors, but Cyrix
has since turned most of its attention to building
highly integrated CPUs for low-cost systems.
That leaves IBM without the ability to sell
high-end Slot 1 CPUs that could compete with
Pentium IIs. Though IBM has made deals to
manufacture AMD's K6 and Centaur's
WinChip, the foundry pacts do not give it sales
rights to the devices.
"Ultimately, IBM is going to have to get an X86
design capability by building it or buying it,"
said Slater. He said Texas Instruments Inc.
scrapped its X86 design effort several years
ago but could reenter the market by buying
itself design expertise via a partnership with an
X86 design house.
Go to This Week's News |
