VIA gets jump on Intel
  08/15/2001 6:46:11 AM MDT Albuquerque, Nm
  By Dustin D. Brand; Owner AMO

New VIA Chipsets for Intel Pentium 4 processors will debut first with SDRAM and DDR capability.   VIA Technologies is set to launch its Pentium 4 chip set in full production quantities today August 15th, 2001, despite the threat of legal action from Intel.

  Intel is threatening legal action because currently, their only Pentium 4 chip set supports RAMBUS DRAM, a type of memory which is costly. Intel already announced their support for another type of memory SDRAM, but Intel isn't done with their chipset for this.

  VIA, the Taiwanese semiconductor manufacturer, the second-largest chip set maker after Intel Corp., is using both the S3 and VIA brands on the new chip sets in an attempt to dodge legal trouble with Intel, motherboard makers have said. The new chipsets from VIA will allow Pentium 4 motherboards to support SDRAM and DDR Memory chips immediately, while Intel has to wait to get their chipsets finished.

  VIA's new chipset with support the current industry standard SDRAM PC-133, and the qickly growing and faster DDR SDRAM. Intel's 850 Pentium 4 chipset currently only supports Rambus RAM which is more expensive.   Intel's SDRAM compatible chip set, the 845, was planned to be launched by the end of August, however does not offer DDR compatibility and doesn't plan to until next year. VIA is ready with their chip set today.

  VIA officials have said the company does not need a license to produce the chip sets because of its recent purchase of graphics chip maker S3, which cross-licensed technology with Intel before it became part of VIA. However, Intel last week sounded a warning that unauthorized chip set makers would face lawsuits.

  Intel isn't lacking knowledge however, and is certainly aware of VIA's release of their Pentium 4 ChipSet. No Intel lawsuits have been filed regarding this, and it is likely that Intel would have done this before VIA released the ChipSet.

  Last summer VIA reached an out-of-court settlement with Intel over Pentium III technology after a lengthy legal battle.

  Intel may not want to dispute the VIA Pentium 4 ChipSet as VIA is estimated to supply 40% of the Intel Processor Chip Sets and leads to more Intel processors being sold.

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