Intel to demand money from Via for making AMD chipsets

[Czar]

http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1003-200-2208676.html?tag=st.ne.1002.thed.ni


<< Although the settlement ends most of the issues in the case, the lawsuit will continue. Intel has modified the scope of the lawsuit and has alleged that Via's chipsets supporting &quot;non-Intel processors,&quot; such as its AMD-compatible chipsets, violate Intel's intellectual property, Mulloy said.

If the court agrees with Intel's claims, this could mean that Intel would be due royalties for chipsets inside computers powered by processors from rival AMD. The settlement does not cover these claims.

&quot;Intel sued Cyrix five times, and they never won,&quot; Wen Chi Chen, Via's CEO and a former Intel executive, said last November. &quot;Intel--they just love lawsuits.&quot;

&quot;There is a pretty good opportunity that we will be No. 1 in the chipset business&quot; by the end of the year, he said in an interview with CNET News.com. &quot;People realize that Via has better performance and cost structure.&quot; >>



First Rambus and now this. I´m starting to think that Intel/Rambus are pure evil.

 

[Czar]

^ common people this is important

 

[Rectalfier]

They can't win by making a superior product, so all they can do is sue their rivals.

 

[Mem]

Well looks like Intel are trying to get more money so can make even more Rambus boards ,talkabout trying to do a Microsoft &amp; control the memory/board market don`t we get a free choice anymore? without all these royalties, companies have to pay to Intel/Rambus.

 

[Zorba]

It seems as if everyday Intel has another bull sh~t lawsuit going against someone. We all know that VIA will (or at least should) win this.

 

[Toxin]

<< Via has secured licensing rights to produce chipsets for Intel-produced Pentium III and Celeron microprocessors. It will pay unspecified royalties and a lump sum for the privilege.

In turn, Intel is dropping lawsuits against its upstart rival in the US, Singapore and the UK. A complaint with the International Trade Commission, a US body, also goes out the window.

This looks sensible all around. Intel could have wrapped Via in patent lawyers for months. But what it gains from stifling an x86 wannabe, it loses from upsetting the world's most important chipset manufacturer.

Via, the champion of DDR-enabled memory, currently accounts for half or more of chipset sales worldwide, so it is a must-have company to have onboard for Intel >>



guess it's all sorted out

 

[Sunner]

I used to like Intel, thinking they made great products, a bit expensive, but very solid.
These days they're judt full of $hit though :|

 

[Czar]

Toxin

I guess they are only dropping the Pentium lawsuit, not the AMD one, but who knows

 

[Quickfingerz]

Intel does make good products, but VIA should be left alone. They have helped intel a lot. VIA should stop helping intel altogether.

 

[rahvin]

Intel invented the AGP and PCI slot. They hold patents on both. If VIA would just own up to using parts of intel's IP in the AGP slot and pay them to use it, there might be a stable 4x AGP implimentation on VIA boards. Oh well, it would be nice if AGP and PCI were open standards but they aren't and Intel spent the $$ developing them. If they hadn't we would all still be using VLB slots (open standard BTW).

 

[Deeko]

I doubt that. If Intel hadn't created AGP, I'm sure someone would've made something like it. Like Intel doesn't have enough money already. Their only real competitor in the PC market has a product equal to if not better that theirs in performance, and Intel probably still sells more, just because they are Intel. And they still think they need more money.

 

[extra]

are you SURE agp and pci aren't open standards? i'm pretty sure they are. apple uses them in their machines, digital alpha's use them, etc, etc...it's doubtful they pay royalties.

 

[rahvin]

Ok people, Intel invented both the PCI and AGP slot. Anyone that uses those slots with Intel IP MUST pay Intel a royalty on them. The open standard the motherboard companies developed to replace ISA was VLB, intel released the PCI spec about 6months after VLB and VLB disappeared almost overnight. Apple pays intel a royalty for every motherboard sold that includes PCI and will soon pay them for every motherboard sold with AGP.

Deeko,

You are SADLY missinformed if you think AGP would have come about without Intel's influence. At the time AGP was introduced intel controlled 95% of the chipset market. I really hope you aren't suggesting that ALI or VIA would, out of the goodness of their hearts, develop a new technology that has no $$ value return. Intel developed AGP to push PC graphics, they then implimented and deployed 95% of the motherboards and convinced all the Graphics companys to make boards using AGP. No other company at that time had that kind of control. NO ONE.

Like it or not people Intel has created numerous advances to improve computers and they deserve the royalties for doing the R&amp;D. Now that AMD is getting a significant share of processors we may begin to see improvements to architecture from them as well if they decide to start serious chipset design and production.

 

[Midnight Rambler]

Rahvin is 100% totally correct.

In addition, VIA had previously signed an agreement to pay Intel its due royalties, but then they managed to renege on a legally-binding contract due to a.) some underhanded acquisition of cross-licensing agreements b.) an idiotic lawyer for the firm representing Intel made a major filing mistake.

But the bottomline remains that every technology company must be able to protect its intellectual property. When this is unable to happen, the incentives to fund R&amp;D and bring us the new technologies that we all desire will be removed. Without the 150-200 Billion $'s that Intel has put in to R&amp;D for the computer industry (not just in CPU's), we'd be far behind where we are today. That's not to say Intel is soley responsible for the PC's success, IBM and many other large companies have contributed massive R&amp;D as well. But it is only the big companies that can afford this kind of R&amp;D, and if you wrongly take their rights to intellectual property that they have discovered and paid for, then progress will slow. Comparatively, AMD and VIA have contracted jack to the industry.

What irks me the most is the continued disrespect in these forums (and elsewhere in this new &quot;connected&quot; world) for the rights of owners of intellectual and creative property. From music, to chips, and everything in between, people seem to think that designers/inventors/artists aren't entitled to protect their creative property. I guess I shouldn't be so surprised, as people in general are becoming more self-centered, and think that the world and every other person and/or company owes them something for free. These people have a lot of serious waking up to do !!!