Sidney

VIA Technologies claims that its self-developed FSB (front-side bus) technology is expected to be implemented in all its embedded CPU offerings in 2006 when a cross license agreement with Intel ends. Intel granted the license to VIA in April of 2003, when the two companies settled patent infringement cases for a series of pending lawsuits at the time.

The Chinese-language Economic Daily News today indicated that Intel has decided not to extend its patent license to VIA after a March 31, 2006 deadline when the Taiwan maker is required to stop producing certain series of embedded processors that are compatible with Intel’s CPU bus or pin. VIA is still looking to resume the cross patent agreement with Intel because not renewing the license may negatively affect VIA’s performance next year, the paper noted.

According to VIA, its C7-series embedded processors with the new FSB technology, dubbed “V4-Bus,” entered volume shipments in June 2005. The embedded platform business accounts for 20-30% of VIA’s total revenues at present, the company said.

For the first three quarters of 2005, VIA suffered a loss of NT$640 million (US$19 million), an improvement from the loss of NT$1.7 billion (US$51 million) it recorded during the same period in 2004, according to the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TSE). VIA aims to return to profitability this year, driven mostly by its embedded platform line.

http://www.digitimes.com/mobos/a20051116PR209.html

Reality of Business - not fun and game afterall.

__________________
lazyman

Opteron 165 (2) @2.85 1.42 vcore AMD Stock HSF + Chill Vent II