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To: Venkie who wrote (63681)	9/4/1998 10:28:00 AM
From: brian z	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 176387

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.