Een Intel woordvoerder heeft tegenover Electronic Buyers' News te kennen gegeven dat er bij Intel geen plannen zijn om licenties voor de quad-pumped Pentium 4 bus te verstrekken aan third-party chipset fabrikanten zoals VIA. Voor de ontwikkeling van Pentium 4 chipsets zijn we dus volledig aangewezen op de capaciteiten van het almachtige Intel:
Via is not licensed to make chipsets that support the upcoming Pentium 4 processor, formerly code-named Willamette, the spokesman said. Intel had earlier stated that it has no plans to license any technology related to the new quad-pumped 400-MHz bus architecture that will be unveiled in Pentium 4 and future processors. [break] Intel blijft enigzins twijfelachtig vasthouden aan Rambus support voor de Pentium III. Eerder week Intel met de i815 al af van het zelf verkozen Rambus-only pad en met de gisteren aangekondigde VIA licentiedeal wordt VIA de mogelijkheid gegeven om DDR chipsets voor de PIII op de markt te zetten: [/break] The settlement also marks the second time in a year that Intel has backed off of its Direct RDRAM-only strategy: an earlier decision resulted in the launch last month of the Intel 815 chipset which supports P133 SDRAM.
At issue, according to analysts, is Intel's recognition that the Rambus market is not yet large or stable enough to convince PC customers to make a clean break with SDRAM. At the same time, Advanced Micro Devices Inc. is continuing its support of PC133 and DDR SDRAM in its Athlon processor road map, though it also offers Direct RDRAM as an alternative.
"Intel acknowledged it needed a DDR chipset for desktop PCs, which up to now Intel itself avoided in order to back Direct Rambus," said Bob Merritt, an analyst with Semico Research Corp., who is based in Redwood City, Calif.
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