TI backing Cyrix in 486 legal fray

Electronic News, June 8, 1992 by Stuart Zipper

SHERMAN, TEX.--Texas Instruments has petitioned the court here to allow it to join Cyrix in its legal battle with Intel over licenses, patents and alleged monopoly control of the X86 microprocessor market.

TI's move came even as Intel attorneys conceded that the company has not been able to document any 486-related patent violations by Cyrix' original Cx486SLC after finally managing to get sample parts. Intel continues to claim the Cyrix circuits, introduced in March, violate a series of 8086- and 80286-related patents.

Cyrix, for its part, won a minor victory against Intel last week in the U.S. District Court in Dallas in the form of a ruling moving Intel's MPU patent infringement claims to the Sherman court. Intel had filed in the Dallas court in March in an apparent move to keep its allegations of MPU patent violations by Cyrix separate from their long-standing legal battle over coprocessor patent violations.

Meanwhile, sources last week said they understand a ruling is imminent on the validity of a key license held by SGS-Thomson, which that company claims gives it the right to make Intel architecture circuits. SGS-Thomson serves as a foundry for Cyrix MPUs and coprocessors, and previously intervened in the case on Cyrix' behalf.

All the companies have been anxiously awaiting a decision by Judge Paul Brown over the validity and scope of the SGS-Thomson license, originally granted to Mostek before its acquisition by the Franco-Italian concern. Should Cyrix win that portion of the case, the issue of patent violation would apparently be irrelevant.

Intel attorneys last week said they had not received notice of an imminent ruling on that matter. Both sides, however, have already indicated they will appeal if they lose.

Thomas Dunlap, Intel's general counsel, indicated last week that the MPU patent battle may be fought only over a group of four 8086- and 80286-related patents, and not over more recent patents so far issued for the i486. Intel has been attempting to get the courts to force Cyrix to give it sample parts of its MPU, but admitted it had obtained parts elsewhere without a court order.

"We got one somehow," Mr. Dunlap said. "We have tested it and it doesn't infringe the 486 patents."

The Intel attorney issued several caveats, though. In addition to repeating claims the Cyrix part does infringe earlier patents, he also noted that Intel still has i486-related patents pending which might be infringed if they are granted. He also noted the company's conclusions were based only on analysis of the 16-bit bus Cx486SLC and not the newly introduced 32-bit bus Cx486DLC.

"We'll wait and see if it infringes or not," he said with reference to the new part. "It depends on how real a 486 it is."

In TI's motion to intervene in the legal battle, a request which Intel has the right to challenge, the company said that any ruling in the case "may as a practical matter impair or impede TI's ability to protect its interest."

The company did not go into any further detail, but TI has been publicly asserting that its rights to both make and sell Intel architecture MPUs come under terms of a broad cross-licensing agreement between the two companies. Although it has not released the cross-license agreement itself, the interpretation of which it appears Intel will challenge in court, TI executives have repeatedly insisted the pact specifically gives it marketing rights.

In contrast, the SGS license on which Judge Brown is expected to soon rule does not delve into the issue of marketing. That license, made public as evidence in the case, neither specifically prohibits nor permits the sale of parts made using Intel patents.

Intel has cited as legal precedent its court victory over Atmel, which had Sanyo as a foundry. Sanyo held an Intel technology license, but the Federal Court in that case ruled the agreement specifically prohibited foundry operations using Intel patents. Cyrix insists that situation does not apply in its case, while Intel points to the lack of any specific foundry or marketing clauses in the Mostek agreement, and also contends the license rights did not transfer to SGS-Thomson in any event.

Meanwhile, Cyrix last week unveiled a 32-bit bus version of its i486-compatible circuit, targeted directly at Intel's mainstream i486DX and SX processors and built for it by both TI and SGS-Thomson. Specifications of the new part, the Cx486DLC, which TI will also sell under its own logo, had been anticipated (EN, March 30).

The new part is said to have full 486 performance and 32-bit external bus but 386DX pinout. In an aggressive marketing stance, Cyrix is offering a free 87DLC-25 floating point processor with each $119 Cx486DLC-25.

Cyrix' original 486SLC, introduced in March, features a 16-bit bus compatible with the Intel 80386SX and targeted directly at designs already using that part, but with internal 486 instruction set capability and performance. The differences in the bus and some performance features have triggered a lively debate over whether that Cyrix part is a true 486.