Intel has denounced VIA's claims to have built a better Pentium 4 chipset than its own 850 product as "bogus".

"The performance claims they [VIA] are making are bogus," said Chipzilla VP Anand Chandrasekher today in an interview with CNET [Who they - Ed?]

As for VIA's right to produce a P4 chipset, "they're not licensed", claimed Chandrasekher.

That's a reference to the fact Intel has not sanctioned VIA's P4X266 chipset, which promises to connect the P4 to DDR SDRAM ahead of Intel's own DDR-based chipset, the 845, aka Brookdale. VIA contends it has the right to P4 technology thanks to a licence it acquired through the purchase of the graphics division of S3 (not SonicBlue).

That argument will run and run, particularly given the two companies' ability to end up in petty squabbles (see Intel incensed at VIA inflatables).

Meanwhile, Chandrasekher dismissed Nvidia's AMD-oriented nForce chipset as effectively irrelevant to the markets it's aimed at. "Does it meet the needs of the market? I don't think so," he said.

Nvidia would counter that nForce is aimed at the low-end and corporate markets that Chandrasekher identifies as the key constituencies for integrated chipsets, rather then just the high-end he reckons it's targeting.

That said, the price that some claim Nvidia is selling the chip for - $50 - is way too pricey for such budget-oriented markets. If Nvidia does indeed go for that price point, it may indeed rule itself out of all but the high-end. ®

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Related Link

CNET: Intel spurns Via, Nvidia chipsets