By Dan Jones
Intel Corp says that VIA Technologies Inc won’t be able to use Cyrix – which the Korean company has confirmed it will purchase from National Semiconductor Corp – as a way to gain access to NatSemi’s long-standing x86 license. Intel spokesperson Chuck Mulloy said of the NatSemi’s x86 license, which the company has held since 1976: it is not transferable, if they’ve sold Cyrix, the license doesn’t go with it.
Bill Callahan, senior public relations manager at NatSemi, confirmed that the x86 license was one of the items up for negotiation between NatSemi and VIA. The chip design company has signed a letter of intent to buy out the x86 division of Cyrix, but neither of the companies is releasing any further details until later this month. By getting a deal on the table now, NatSemi has satisfied one of the conditions laid down for the sale of Cyrix by its CEO, Brian Halla – that a purchaser should be found by the end of June or the unit would be closed down.
If the deal works out for VIA, it will be able to bypass Intel, by licensing the x86 technology it needs through NatSemi. The company will then have a ready source of low-end processors for its chipset products and will gain fresh impetus for its drive to establish PC133 as an alternative memory standard to Rambus. However, if Intel sticks to its guns, the legal battle over x86 licenses can be expected to drag on.
