Distie stung with fake Compaq memory

Hurrah for CRN UK for two big crime stories. First up is the "major UK distributor (which) has admitted that it has up to £200,000 worth of fake Compaq memory on its shelves". CRN funks it, by declining to name the distie, which said it bought the product, packaged for retail, from a broker which claimed that it had sourced directly from Compaq in Hong Kong. That could be a dynamite spin - Compaq selling counterfeit branded DRAM to its channel, because it can't tell the difference from the real thing. But this would require the broker to be telling the truth to make that angle work. Underneath the Compaq retail packaging, is product made by Winbond. "The quality of the memory is poor," says sources quoted by CRN. That's fighting talk, Winbond. What do you have to say about that? The secret distie has reported the fraud to Compaq in Houston, according to CRN, which in passing mentions that fake Compaq-branded DLT drives and controllers are also in circulation. *CRN's second big crime story of the week is the robbery of 200 Pentium chips from a delivery driver stopping for petrol at an Esso garage, in Ashford, Middlesex. He was jumped by a man wearing a full-face crash helmet and wielding a hammer. Police say the value of the goods was £1.5 million, but CRN raises an editorial eyebrow as it "values each processor at £7,500. Intel's current flagship Pentium III 500MHz Xeon server chip costs £4,447." ®