Microprocessor
Headline News

Top Stories for September 11, 2001 (details below)
C/Net	Intel sues Via as chipset wars begin anew
C/Net	Via files countersuits against Intel
CMP Net	Intel, Via legal war heats up
C/Net	New Pentium 4 systems jilt Rambus
EBN	Rambus asks court to delay Micron suit for a year
EBN	Intel halting new orders for desktop Pentium III
*Truths...from the rumor mill*
The Inquirer	HP-Compaq deal 'faces collapse'
The Inquirer	AMD outlines anti-Intel plans
The Inquirer	Pentium III fades, Athlon tightens

Microprocessor Headline News

Collected By Robert R. Collins

Week of September 9, 2001

Older News

September 11, 2001

Intel sues Via as chipset wars begin anew

By Michael Kanellos

September 7, 2001
C/Net

Chipmaker Intel has filed a patent-infringement lawsuit against Via Technologies and will seek to have Via's new Pentium 4 chipsets pulled off the market.

Santa Clara, Calif.-based Intel on Friday filed suit in U.S. District Court in Delaware. The lawsuit alleges that Via's P4X266 and P4M266 chipsets, which were released earlier this month, infringe on five Intel patents.

S3 Graphics is also named as a defendant. S3 Graphics is a joint venture created by Via and Sonicblue--a graphics chipmaker turned consumer electronics company--to help develop chipsets.

Via files countersuits against Intel

By Reuters

September 10, 2001
C/Net

Microchip designer Via Technologies said Monday that it was filing a series of counter lawsuits against semiconductor giant Intel for patent infringement in Taiwan and the United States.

"Intel processors and the Intel Pentium 4 processors compatible 845 chipsets infringe on Via's patents," Via's marketing director, Richard Brown, said at a news conference.

"Starting today, Via will begin filing a series of patent-infringement lawsuits and civil actions in Taiwan and U.S. courts, seeking damages and injunctive relief," said Brown.

Intel, Via legal war heats up

By Edward F. Moltzen

September 11, 2001
CMP Net

As Intel hits the milestone of shipping its long-awaited 845 chipset, the company is emerging in a new legal donnybrook with Via Technologies that has each company claiming the other is infringing on its patented technology.

The legal battle began when Intel filed a patent infringement lawsuit in US District Court in Delaware, charging that Taipei, Taiwan-based Via and a second defendant--S3 Graphics--infringed on five of its patents related to the Pentium 4 and 845 chipsets.

New Pentium 4 systems jilt Rambus

By Michael Kanellos

September 7, 2001
C/Net

PC manufacturers will push the Pentium 4 toward wide circulation Monday with new computers that for the first time wed the chip with standard memory, rather than Rambus memory.

Virtually every major computer company will unveil budget-class Pentium 4 computers for the business market at the beginning of next week. Hewlett-Packard, for instance, will release the Vectra VL 420, which will contain a 1.6GHz Pentium 4, 128MB of memory and a 20GB hard drive for $899. Gateway, Dell Computer, IBM and others have similar plans.

Rambus asks court to delay Micron suit for a year

By Jack Robertson

September 5, 2001
EBN

Rambus Inc. has asked that the Micron Technology suit in federal district court in Wilmington, Del., be delayed for more than a year, a Micron spokesman confirmed Wednesday.

Rambus has filed a motion to stay the SDRAM patent trial until after the federal appellate court rules, probably in late 2002 or early 2003, on a Rambus appeal of a similar case it lost in the Richmond, Va. federal court against Infineon Technologies AG. The jury in that case decided that Rambus had committed fraud, and Federal Judge Robert Payne ruled that Infineon didn't infringe the Rambus patents.

Intel halting new orders for desktop Pentium III

By Jack Robertson

September 7, 2001
EBN

Intel Corp. made it official that the desktop Pentium III processor is being discontinued, with the last orders accepted on Dec. 7.

A company notification to customers said support for desktop Pentium IIIs is already being scaled back and all orders for the chip become noncancellable after Oct. 12.

Analysts have long claimed that the desktop Penitum III will quickly disappear as Intel ramps up the successor Pentium 4 processor this fall. Pentium III continues as a mobile and server processor, and the recently-introduced Tualatin0.13-micron PIII-M mobile chip will come out later this year as part of the desktop Celeron value line.

Truths...from the rumor mill

HP-Compaq deal 'faces collapse'

By Mike Magee

September 10, 2001
The Inquirer

HP AND COMPAQ executives are set to embark on a furious spin campaign to save the proposed takeover - announced only last Monday - from a disastrous collapse, the Wall Street Journal reports today.

Meanwhile, sources from inside HP have told the INQUIRER that any possibility of successfully uniting disparate elements of the two companies' server strategies are just a pipe dream.

The Wall St Journal quotes Ben Rosen, the power behind Compaq's throne - as saying that the deal will definitely go ahead.

AMD outlines anti-Intel plans

By Mike Magee

September 8, 2001
The Inquirer

A CONFERENCE CALL CAPTURED AT JC's pages has outlined some of AMD's thinking about how it will combat Intel's move to 2GHz Pentium 4s and above.

AMD believes that while Intel may be ahead in moving its chip production to .13 micron, it will be able to switch its entire production over faster. In the second half of next year, says AMD, it will move its production to silicon on insulator (SOI).

Pentium III fades, Athlon tightens

By Marco Fumagalli

September 10, 2001
The Inquirer

THE SUPPLY OF PENTIUM III processors is now very tight, writes our spot market watcher, Marco Fumagalli.

But, on the other hand, motherboards using the 845 chipset are already arriving in the spot market - not just the big names but also Taiwanese second tier companies, indicating that the chipset has been available for months.

Intel is turning the screw on supplies of the Pentium III microprocessor, as first reported here. The 933MGHz Pentium III and the 1GHz Pentium III have virtually disappeared from the marketplace since last week, after jumping a clear 10 per cent last week on their July and August prices.