Big Brother Bully

     According to some Taiwanese sources, Intel Corporation, the world’s largest CPU maker is coercing its smaller rival Via Technologies to quit the CPU market In Iieu Intel will allow Via continue manufacturing computer chipsets which employ Intel’s patented technology. Both companies have not made official any comment on the subject.

     The chipset business earns Via most of its revenue, though its CPUs generate the growing profits. Via CPUs are increasingly been adopted by product designers for handheld PCs, low-cost notebooks and other applications where low cost, noise, heat and power consumption are strong selling points.

     In the last few years, Intel alleged that Via has been using Intel’s patents cover particulars such as the timing of electronic signals that the chipset uses to communicate with the CPU. The legal pressure Intel has been mounting over Via has resulted in an unnerving effect on Via’srelation with motherboard manufacturers. who purchase its chipsets and this has resulted in Via losing a substantial chipset market share.

     Intel has suggested the Via should cease manufacturing CPUs in exchange of which Via would be permitted to make Intel CPU compatible chipsets. But it seems Via has other plans in store. Recently it announced a major restructuring by way of which its CPU and chipset units would be spun into two diverse businesses. This shift  would enable Via to offshoot its CPU unit as a separate entity. While this could be a plus pont for Via, the flipside is such a move can get complicated when it comes to products that combine both the CPU and chipset in a single unit