SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Interest in the microprocessor technology of defunct Exponential Technology Inc. reached a fevered pitch last week, as almost two-dozen chip companies scrambled to place bids for the 40-odd patents that could provide an avenue to challenge Intel Corp.'s forthcoming 64-bit Merced processor.

The first round of bids was slated to close Friday, and the second--and final--round will close this Friday. "If there's no tie, then the winning bidder will be determined after the second bid," said John Montgomery, an attorney at General Counsel Associates, a law firm representing Exponential.

Montgomery wouldn't name the companies bidding, but some that reportedly have expressed an interest in Exponential's patent portfolio are Advanced Micro Devices Inc., Chromatic Research Inc., Digital Equipment Corp., Intel, Rambus Inc. and S3 Corp.

Bidding process
To qualify for the second round, bidders will have to be within 35 percent of the highest bidder's submission. The two largest bidders will be privy to each other's bid price, though neither company's name will be disclosed, said Richard Belgard, a consultant in Saratoga, Calif., who is working with three companies involved with the bidding process.

Since the bids came to light a few weeks ago, the number of companies expressing interest has shot up to two dozen, said Exponential patent agent Stu Auvinen.

A handful of patents among the 40 that Exponential is auctioning off could form a powerful weapon against Intel, Auvinen said. The Exponential patents describe ways to use low-level emulation code for processing X86 instructions; a way to send both X86 and RISC instructions down one pipeline; and a shared register file for both RISC and X86 instructions.

"The idea is to essentially build a RISC processor but have all the emulation software that an X86 processor can do," Auvinen said. "If you could make it switch between hardware and software fast enough, you could get good performance."

Intel was issued its own U.S. patent in July for what is believed to be the Merced. That patent describes ways to handle a mix of X86 and RISC instructions on a single processor.

Observers also said that Exponential may choose to parcel out the patent portfolio among several bidders. If such were to happen, companies could conceivably use the Exponential technology to fill gaps in their own processor-development efforts or combine their resources with other companies to jointly develop a new processor, observers said.

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