Intel confirms P4 license talks

Intel veep Paul Otellini, boss of Chipzilla's Architecture group, confirmed at Comdex that the company is in talks to license the P4 system bus to other chipset vendors.

It's unlikely anyone else would want to build another RDRAM version to rival Intel's own i850 Tehama, so that means DDR SDRAM.

Otellini stated that Intel's own chipsets for the Pentium 4 will be Rambus-only until the back end of next year, adding: "We are in discussions with a number of third-party vendors on bus licenses."

VIA has already said it will develop its own Pentium 4 chipset. Otellini was tight-lipped on whether a VIA deal has been signed, saying "VIA is a licensee on a number of products in the Pentium III generation."

Rambus, despite its undoubted performance edge over cheaper memory technologies is still viewed as overpriced by some observers. To speed acceptance of P4, Intel has an introductory offer in place consisting of a P4 processor, Garibaldi D850GB mobo and two 64MB RIMMs (memory must be used in pairs with the 850's dual-Rambus technology). ®

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