Almost one year after Digital Equipment Corp filed suit against Intel Corp for patent infringement over the Alpha chip (CI No 3,160), the issue has finally been resolved, with the US government’s Federal Trade Commission giving its seal of approval to the settlement agreed between the two last October (CI No 3,277). But the FTC has insisted on conditions that it hopes will help shore up the Alpha RISC chip as some kind of a competitor to Intel’s 64-bit Merced iA64, due out next year. As planned, Intel will acquire DEC’s Hudson semiconductor plant for $700m. But, on the insistence of the FTC, DEC must license its technologies to two other sources, in order to preserve competition. It already has a deal with Samsung Electronics Co in place, and is now in the process of putting a similar agreement together with Advanced Micro Devices Inc, which will gain the rights to manufacture and design the chip. Whether AMD is ultimately interested in doing so, remains to be seen, but AMD, which had already negotiated the rights to use the Alpha bus technology in its next generation K7 Intel clone chip, might well use more of the Alpha technology in a bid to keep up in the performance race. DEC is also seeking a third source to build the chip, with the name of IBM Corp mentioned. Without alternative sources, the FTC thought there would be nothing to stop Intel from holding back developments on the Alpha chip so as to favor its home-grown products. Intel’s plans for the StrongARM embedded chip can also go ahead under the ruling. Intel worked out licensing terms for StrongARM with Advanced RISC Machines Ltd back in February (CI No 3,354). But whatever the FTC decides will make little difference if the market doesn’t adopt Alpha technology for NT as an alternative to Intel’s Merced, which will inevitably be the dominant platform. If Alpha has a chance of survival, it will be through the advocacy of Compaq Computer Corp, about to become the new owner of DEC. Compaq hasn’t made its real position on Alpha clear yet, but it’s conceivable that it could adopt the chip for its own use as a way of weaning itself away from its long enforced dependence on Intel.
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