Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : AMD:News, Press Releases and Information Only! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Adrian Wu who wrote (6254)	5/20/1998 1:33:00 PM
From: Petz	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 6843

Intel's (and CNET's) "spin" on licensing PII chipset technology is bogus. (From CNET) SAN JOSE, California--Intel acknowledged that it has licensed an underlying and hitherto proprietary piece of microarchitecture to an unnamed third party, loosening its stranglehold on the high-end computing market. The development, earlier reported by CNET, will subject Intel to competition in the chipset market for Pentium II computers for the first time. It may also, at least in one area, mollify Federal Trade Commission concerns that chip giant company unfairly wields its monopoly over its intellectual property. (See related story) Paul Otellini, executive vice president and general manager of the Intel architecture business unit, told a PC Tech Forum audience in a keynote speech that a third-party chipmaker has been granted a license for the P6 bus and that this company will start to sell chipsets in the near future. "We have concluded a license with a third-party company that will make chips," he said. "We will license to [other] companies...Our philosophy is value for value," Otellini added, implying that the licenses could come at a high cost. - Original Source: news.com -------- COMMENTS The assertion that this loosens "its stranglehold on the high-end computing market" is total BS. While chipsets are profitable for Intel, its a drop in the bucket compared to CPU's. CNET (owned by Intel, incidentally), says that this licensing agreement "mollifies" the FTC in their investigation of Intel monopolistic licensing practices. But the obvious purpose of this licensing arrangement is to prevent further development of Super Socket 7 chipsets by third parties. Is it any accident that the first company with a viable Super Socket 7 chipset (VIA) is also the one which is rumored to be sold the license? No, the CNET explanation, that Intel is being "nice" is all wet. When Intel saw VIA's already-announced chipset for Slot 1, their legal experts probably concluded that it would be tough to win a suit anyway. The deduced that other chipset makers would be willing to buy a license and spend their limited R&D on Slot 1 chipset development, if a license were offered. I hope the FTC isn't as dumb as CNET makes them out to be and they see this for what it is: using monopoly power to steal a key supplier from the anti-Intel coalition. Petz