VIA Technologies Inc (
"We don't think our product infringes Intel's patent," said Ted Lee, vice president of marketing and sales at VIA.
Chuck Mulloy, a spokesman for Intel, the world's biggest chipmaker, wouldn't comment. Craig Barrett, Intel's president and chief executive officer, said last month in Taiwan that "if VIA purports to introduce a chipset that's compatible with ours, they better be careful." VIA and Intel have previously sparred over the use of Pentium technology in chipsets designed by the Taiwan-based company. In 1999, Intel filed a suit in US courts alleging that VIA stole chipset patents and technologies while licensed as a contractor.
Last year, Intel and VIA settled the dispute. VIA agreed to pay Intel an undisclosed sum and said it would pay royalty fees to make chipsets based on the Pentium technology.
A chipset manages the flow of information between the processor and other parts of a computer.
VIA needs to sell chipsets based on the Pentium 4 as computer makers begin to use the new central processing unit that is about 50 percent faster than Intel's Pentium 3. About 80 percent of computers globally use Intel's Pentium processors, according to International Data Corp, a market research firm.
VIA is "following a risky strategy" by using Pentium 4 technology without Intel's permission, said Chris Hsieh, an analyst at ING Barings Securities Ltd in Taiwan. The company perhaps believes it has no other choice because of the growing popularity of the latest Pentium processor, he said.
About 85 percent of VIA's sales are from chipsets, with approximately half based on Intel's technology and half on Advanced Micro Devices Inc's, according to ING Barings.
"For chipset companies in Taiwan it's lose, lose, lose," Hsieh said, who has a "hold" recommendation on VIA's shares.
"For Intel it's win, win, win." Intel makes a chipset based on the Pentium 4 called the Brookdale.
Taiwan Semiconductor Man-ufacturing Co (
Several Taiwan computer motherboard makers have planned their boards based on Via's chipset design, he said.
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