Officials Quiet Rumors of Intel-RIM Announcement

Chip maker Intel and BlackBerry maker RIM will not announce a technology agreement at the IDF this week, but such an announcement is likely coming down the pike.

The market was buzzing earlier this week on reports from CNBC television that Intel Corp. had agreed to a deal to use battery-saving technology from Research In Motion Ltd., and that RIM would support Intels promotion of WiMax, a nascent wireless broadband technology.

Additional reports said the deal would be announced at the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco this week.

Intel officials denied that such an announcement would happen at this week, but industry sources indicated that a new agreement between the two companies is in the works.

“The industry expects something, but I dont think there is any real sense of timing,” said one source.

Analysts note that Intel and RIM have a history.

“Intel and ADI [Analog Devices Inc.] jointly worked on [power management] technology that is in todays BlackBerrys,” said Ken Dulaney, vice president of mobile computing at Gartner Inc.

“While that technology is in the ADI chip used in todays Blackberrys, Intel was waiting for the Hermone chip to incorporate it. I suspect that this is what all the fuss is about. The technology was inspired by RIM, so I suspect that RIM may receive some type of compensation for it, but that would be difficult to find out.”

“Hermone” was the code name for a cell phone chip that combines data processing with network access; Intel announced it at a French trade show last year.

Officials at RIM and Intel declined to comment on future plans.

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