VIA is close to settling its legal battle with Intel over the Taiwanese firm's P4 chipsets, according to the Commercial Times of Taipei.

In the meantime it is signing a number of distribution deals to handle the P4 chipset- in spite of the legal threats from Intel.

Both stories come courtesy of EBNonline. It reports that big distie name Ingram Micro has, according to VIA marketing director Frank Jeng, signed up to sell the P4x266 chipset.
Lesser names jumping on the VIA P4 chipset bandwagon include Eprom, Leadman Electronics, Leadertech Systems of Chicago, Eastern Data, Agaman and Daiwa. Some Euro disties are also lined up.

The companies will sell unbranded mobos built around the chipset in the hope that the non-branded products will be less likely to get caught up in VIA and Intel's legal fight.

As for the resolution of the legal spat between the the chip firms, the Commercial Times cites an unnamed industry source who claims that VIA President Chen Wen-chi met Intel execs at Comdex in Las Vegas last week to discuss the payment of a $2 royalty per chipset. As this is half of what Silicon Integrated Systems and Acer Labs are paying, there may be some way before settlement is reached. ®