It's all about memory. Most processors use SDRAM memory--either single data rate (SDR) or faster double data rate (DDR). Pentium 4 systems have been saddled with expensive RDRAM memory since their inception because of some reportedly semi-incestuous relationship that's developed between Intel and RAMBUS, the creators of RDRAM. Enter $400 in your calculator for 512MB of RDRAM. Now subtract $72 for 512MB of DDR SDRAM. The amount you see is the minimum you'd save if you could buy a Pentium 4 computer with VIA's Apollo P4X266 chipset.
Intel will be manufacturing its own SDRAM chipset, but at first it will support the slower SDR variety. DDR support will show up later. One wonders why Intel, the premier chip manufacturer in the world, can't come up with an equivalent product that VIA Technologies (probably running at #2) is ready to ship right now. Intel must be more intimate with the bus architecture and timing needs of the Pentium 4 than VIA could ever possibly be. One wonders if Intel's contract with RAMBUS might not expire at roughly the same time that it delivers DDR SDRAM support.
VIA thinks it has a license to build its chipset because it bought S3, a chip company that's licensed to build Intel-compatible chipsets. VIA also had a license to use Intel technology in its chipsets in June of 1999 when Intel sued the company for what Intel claimed were violations of the provisions of its license. That was shortly after VIA beat Intel to the street with a chipset that supported PC133 SDRAM and AGP 4x--features that Intel was late to market with. Is there a pattern here?
On its side, VIA claims to have a slew of motherboard makers lined up to for its chipset. Intel's has its CPU allocation list--a preferenced list of companies that receive Intel processors when they're in short supply (as they'll probably be initially with the new 2GHz Pentium 4, and again when the smaller Northwood Pentium 4 shows up sometime in the next few months). The lower you are on that list, the less likely you are to get a CPU that's in demand--or, the more likely it is you'll have to pay a higher price for one on the gray market (which, naturally, doesn't exist). Even if you're at (or near) the top of the list, you'd be in the same straits should someone's coffee cup accidentally cover your name when the allocations are made. (Of course, such things are only rumored to have happened and have never been proven.)
Without a CPU, a computer is just a pile of beeping parts--and Intel throwing its weight around with threats of lawsuits is often enough to turn slews into a sluice. Don't expect to see VIA empowered Pentium 4 motherboards in the near future. If Intel's smart, it won't rock the boat more than is needed to reach a cross-licensing agreement with VIA. It can run out its contract with RAMBUS without losing more money, and, start mainstreaming Pentium 4 CPUs--something Intel desperately needs to do. That would be the best of all worlds. Historically, Intel has always managed to point its shotgun at its own foot. And then our budgets start to bleed.
