Intel Corp says that National Semiconductor Inc’s announcement that it will serve as a manufacturing facility for VIA Technologies Inc’s Pentium II-based chipsets changes nothing in the legal spat between Intel and the Taiwanese chip design house. National does not have the rights to license VIA by acting as a foundry, said Chuck Malloy, Intel’s spokesperson on legal affairs. He said that Intel would be pursuing the patent infringement and breach of contract case it filed against VIA late last month, which revoked VIA’s x86 license. Asked whether the new moves by VIA and Natsemi would lead to further legal action, Malloy admitted that he didn’t know at this stage but that Intel was watching to see how it will play out.
Natsemi said on Wednesday that it would serve as a foundry for VIA chipsets for PII-type processors. The chipsets support VIA’s favored PC133 SDRAM memory connection standard and use a 133MHz frontside bus. VIA agreed to buy Natsemi’s Cyrix x86 unit on July 1 and the two companies said that they would be announcing further details of the deal over the coming month.
