Word: pentium
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Behind every great fortune," Balzac wrote, "there is a crime." That's the contention of the stunning lawsuit filed last week by Digital Equipment Corp. against microchip giant Intel. The great fortune in this case comes courtesy of the Pentium microprocessing chip, which runs 85% of the earth's personal computers and helped feed Intel $6.45 billion in revenues in the first quarter of 1997 alone. The alleged crime is Intel's "willful infringement" on 10 Dig-ital patents in building the Pentium series. And the suggested punishment: damages that could run into the billions and an injunction against continued...
Digital's surprise assault was impeccably timed: the previous week Intel had celebrated the launch of next-generation chip Pentium II. And the day of Digital's suit, microprocessor upstart Cyrix quietly filed its own patent-infringement claim against Intel. Digital followed a day later with full-page ads in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times and San Jose Mercury News. Wall Street took the bait, wrist slapping Intel's soaring stock down $6 and backslapping Digital up $2 in the belief that the microchip David wouldn't rile Goliath unless it had a really, really good case...
...hardware giant had bet heavily on its $2.5 billion Alpha microprocessor to return it to prosperity. Alpha is unquestionably the fastest chip on the market, but its speed hasn't overcome Intel's marketing clout. In 1996, according to Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Mercury Research, Intel shipped some 65 million Pentium chips, or 76% of the microprocessor market, compared with 200,000 Alphas. And this year looks grimmer still: 18 million Pentiums shipped through March, to 60,000 Alphas...
...chips--though Palmer doesn't claim this piracy occurred during negotiations between the companies in 1990 and '91. Intel was then considering licensing Alpha technology for its next-generation chip; after both companies signed a confidentiality agreement, Dig- gital revealed the Alpha design. But the talks fell apart, and Pentium, sans Alpha, went on to become the soul...
...Palmer was noticing reviews of Intel's new Pentium Pro line that found it strikingly--even suspiciously--improved over its Pentium forebears. Intel itself provided the most damning hints that it had leaned on its competitors for the upgrade. "There's nothing left to copy," said chief operating officer Craig Barrett in an incendiary Wall Street Journal article in August 1996. "We're a big banana now," noted CEO Andrew Grove. "We can't rely on others to do our research and development...