Intel under pressure to release bus technology

Intel is facing pressure from three major PC manufacturers to adopt a non-proprietary design for next generation PCI bus technology.

Compaq, Hewlett-Packard (HP) and IBM have proposed a design that would increase the speed of data transfer between the processor and the peripherals to 133MHz, which would be most suited to high-end servers.

It would also enable them to develop their own accessory chips, rather than pay royalty fees to Intel, giving them an advantage over rival PC manufacturers. But Intel says it has its own plans to speed up the technology - although they have not yet been revealed.

Joe D'Elia, associate director of the semiconductor group at market research house, Dataquest, said: "Any bus that isn't supported by Intel is going to be hard pushed to be adopted by the rest of the industry. That Compaq, HP and IBM are among its largest customers means that Intel will have to sit up and listen."

However D'Elia doubts the value of the move. He said: "I don't think it is even in their interests to have a design that is proprietary to them. At the moment they can get whatever they want off the shelf at fairly low cost, to design their own accessory chips would not necessarily be cost-effective."