Via buys Cyrix x86 business

Via Technologies of Taiwan has signed a letter of intent to purchase National Semiconductor's Cyrix x86 processor business.

The move is a bold one for the tiny chip set maker, pitting it squarely against microprocessor goliath Intel and rival AMD for a piece of the hard-fought CPU market.

The news comes in the wake of a lawsuit, filed last week by Intel in U.S. District Court in San Jose, Calif., alleging that Via violated a November, 1998 chip set license agreement by misrepresenting products as licensed from Intel.

Cyrix's core x86 business, including a team of 300 designers and marketers, along with its intellectual property, will be absorbed by Via, assuming the sale goes through. It will remain in Richardson, Texas.

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