Intel Sues Via

Well, it looks like Intel has finally gotten around to taking legal action against P4 chipset maker Via Technologies. The two companies have been shouting across the fence at each other for months now, ever since Via announced that it would make chipsets for P4 motherboards without a license from Intel. The chipsets support DDR-SDRAM, which seems to be what Intel is moving toward anyway, despite a flirtation with legally beleaguered Rambus. So far, Chaintech, Shuttle and Tyan, and AOpen are making or planning to make boards based on Via's chipset. Via claims that it has rights to produce the chipsets from swallowing up S3. It's a long sordid tale told in detail by Mike Magee over at The Inquirer , who also got ahold of Intel's Via legal deposition . It certainly does seem as though Via has been pushing the issue, but Intel's action seems particularly poorly timed. Regardless of the chipset used, P4 machines will use P4 processors. From the deposition, it doesn't look like Intel is calling for an embargo on VIA chipsets, but one can only presume that such action is in the cards. Stopping shipment of the P4X266 could hurt Intel's P4 shipments as well as causing damage to the motherboard manufacturers who quite obviously support both companies.