Licensing 800MHz FSB from Intel may mix up chipset maker positions
Introducing the new wave of questions on Taiwan about paying license taxes to Intel for using P4 bus patents. This one arrived on the threshold of new CPU standards including the Hyper-Threading and 800MHz FSB support. As you know, Intel itself will release the Springdale chipset for the mainstream market. As the new 800MHz FSB standard will require the additional license payings to Intel from Taiwanese makers, analysts forecast the Intel’s chipset market share to possibly grow the next year.
As it has turned out, no Taiwanese makers have obtained Intel’s license for 800MHz bus. If, for example, VIA hasn´t strived for this anyway, SiS and Ali might suffer from the additional license expenses. As you know, the market share of Intel P4 chipsets grew to 60-70% in 2002. The share of SiS grew up to 20%. VIA Technologies, that hasn’t obtained the license for Pentium 4 from Intel, and Ali, which hasn’t shown the particular interest to this market, shared the remaining 10%. So, it seems that SiS will have to pay most to keep its market part. Ali will suffer as well, having recently announced the resumption of interest to the desktop chipset market.
Source: The DigiTimes
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