Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/1998/09/09/intel_headbutts_gang_of_three/

Intel headbutts gang of three over PCI

Great Stan preens peacock feathers

By Mike Magee

Posted in On-Prem, 9th September 1998 15:00 GMT

Reports on the US wires last week that Intel was being precluded from a gang of three of the biggest PC vendors, were firmly rebutted by Intel today. Stories said that Compaq, HP and IBM were pressing ahead with a specification called PCIX, while Intel was dragging its heels. The spec, allegedly the result of Compaq and HP conspiring together against the Great Stan of chips and Dell, the Great Stan 0f Hardware, already includes Intel, the company said today. The representative said: "Intel is a member of the PC Sig as are the other three. The enhancements should be worked through the PC Sig process. "Our plans for the platform include PCI as a cutting edge technology for some years to come." Intel is married to the PCIX process. But many questions remain about the new specification. Peter Glaskowsky, a senior analyst at The Microprocessor Report said it was unclear whether the PCIX spec used advanced features including command pipelining or disconnection to allow multiple transactions to proceed at the same time. He said it was also unclear how many slots it would support, and whether it would support the various AGP standards. Intel refused to answer these and other questions. Backward compatibility, in particular, is an issue, said another analyst who declined to be named. * Bootie Note. Eight years ago, two of The Register staffers found themselves at the joint development site at Boca Raton, run by both Intel and IBM. While the manager of the joint enterprise was out, we both noticed lots of data buses, all named after streets in the locality. ®