Taiwan's VIA Technologies will quit using Intel technology in its central processors next year and instead intends to expand its own technology portfolio.
A three-year agreement for VIA to use Intel's front-side bus (FSB) technology in its own central processing units expires in April next year and will not be renewed.
In public statements, VIA has said it will not renew licensing agreements because Intel's technology is not up to speed.
Privately, observers point to the royalty payments the Taiwan company must pay to Intel as a strong incentive for it to go it alone.
The technology at issue surrounds the front-side bus, the main architecture connecting the central processing unit to a computer's memory and other components.
The present licensing agreement was signed in 2003 at the conclusion of one of a series of messy lawsuits which saw Intel sue VIA for patent infringement.
Those lawsuits turned particularly nasty when Intel threatened to sue not only VIA but any motherboard maker which used any VIA products which included the allegedly infringing patents.
