A Year Ago: Digital settles with Intel, loses fabs, keeps Alpha

Digital Equipment Corp. will sell its semiconductor manufacturing operations to Intel Corp. for about $700 million, settling a series of patent suits between the two companies.

Under the terms of the deal, Digital will agree to support Intel's 64-bit chip architecture, although it will continue development of its own Alpha processor. Intel has agreed to serve as a foundry for the Alpha and has agreed to support future generations of that chip.