Intel Tells Mobo Makers to Stay Away From Via

This is turning out to be one of those stories that befuddle not only the masses, but journalists as well. Aside from back-alley murmurings and speculation, we know little more than you do if companies keep their mouths shut about what goes on behind closed doors (the 3GIO/HyperTransport shenanigans are a good example of this phenomenon). Most everyone agrees that the Intel/Rambus union was a match made in Hell. Even Intel has its own chipset that lets you use SDRAM instead of RDRAM. What's really weird about the Intel/Via situation is that it seems odd that Intel would be upset about a chipset that would help them do what their investors expect them to do: sell processors. However, according to a story on eWeek , Intel is warning computer makers to stay away from Via's P4X266 chipset . According to the story, Intel has threatened legal action against mobo makers who use Via's chipset. Whether Via has a license to build P4 chipsets or not seems like a pretty ridiculous thing for Intel to worry about. Any enabling technology that will encourage the masses to move up to a P4 would be viewed as a good thing by anyone looking in from the outside. In this case, Intel seems to be more concerned with picking nickels up off the floor than grabbing the $10 bills on the table.