MediaChips

OPTi Inc.

Company type	Public
Industry	Semiconductor
Founded	1989
Founder	Former employees of Chips and Technologies
Defunct	2001
Headquarters	Milpitas, California , United States
Key people	Kenny Liu (former CEO and chairman), Bernie Marren (CEO from 1998)
Products	Chipsets for personal computer platforms, CPU cache modules, interleaved memory solutions, PCI chipsets, mobile chipsets, 2D graphics technology, audio controllers
Number of employees	235 (early 1990s)

OPTi Inc. was a fabless semiconductor company headquartered in Milpitas, California, specializing in the production of chipsets for personal computer platforms. The company ceased operations in 2001, transferring its assets to an unrelated non-practicing entity named OPTi Technologies (which later took on the name OPTi Inc.).

History

Established in 1989 by former employees of Chips and Technologies, OPTi initially focused on designing VLSI chipsets tailored for i386SX and i486-based AT motherboard architectures. Its early product lineup featured CPU cache modules and interleaved memory solutions that minimized motherboard component requirements for 486 systems operating at 40 MHz. In 1991, OPTi successfully defended itself against a patent infringement lawsuit brought by Chips and Technologies concerning memory technology.

By early 1992, OPTi had developed one of the pioneering local bus architectures for IBM PC-compatible systems, competing with both VESA local bus standards and Intel’s emerging PCI technology. The company shifted focus to PCI chipsets during the era of the original Pentium processors. Later that year, OPTi introduced a programmable writethrough–writeback cache chipset capable of supporting up to 64 MB of RAM and compatible with Intel, Cyrix, and AMD CPUs.

In the early 1990s, OPTi achieved peak annual revenues of US$164 million and employed approximately 235 individuals. Under CEO Kenny Liu’s leadership, revenues reached $100 million by fiscal year 1991. Despite a successful initial public offering in 1993, Intel’s chipset market dominance posed significant challenges by 1994—with Intel controlling 66% of Pentium-class chipset sales compared to OPTi’s 10%. Liu resigned as CEO in 1994 but continued serving as chairman.

OPTi found greater success in the mobile chipset segment, launching i486-based notebook solutions in 1994 that secured design wins from Toshiba, NEC, and Hewlett-Packard. Its PCI-based Viper-N chipset gained market traction through mid-1995. The Viper-M chipset supported multiple processors including Cyrix's unreleased 6x86 and AMD's K5, positioning it as a competitor to Intel’s Pentium-exclusive chipsets.

In September 1995, OPTi partnered with United Microelectronics Corporation and other fabless companies to form a semiconductor fabrication facility in Taiwan focused on manufacturing processes ranging from 350 to 250 nm.

The company also ventured into 2D graphics technology with its TrueColor GUI Accelerator launched in 1995. Earlier acquisitions included MediaChips Inc., a designer of affordable digital audio chips whose patents facilitated the development of OPTi’s 929 audio controller in 1994. However, in 1997, OPTi and TriTech Microelectronics became defendants in patent infringement litigation initiated by Crystal Semiconductor over mixed-signal technologies used within the Viper-M audio component. The court ruled against OPTi around 2000, resulting in a combined payment obligation of $20 million.

Dissolution, sale, and litigation streak

Facing intense competition from Intel in the chipset arena, OPTi’s sales nearly vanished by late 1998. After relocating its headquarters to Palo Alto, California, the company appointed Bernie Marren as CEO that same year. A board member since 1996, Marren redirected OPTi’s strategy in 1999 from chipset manufacturing toward microcontroller development for notebooks, focusing on LCD interfaces as well as USB and IEEE 1394 (FireWire) serial communication protocols. These new products barely achieved breakeven performance, leading the board to unanimously vote for dissolution in September 2001 pending formal approval scheduled for November.

Following approximately one year of inactivity, OPTi divested its semiconductor business and assets to an unaffiliated entity named OPTi Technologies. Bernie Marren took leadership of this new organization, which soon rebranded itself as OPTi Inc. Under his direction, this iteration operated as a non-practicing entity—primarily licensing patents and engaging aggressively in patent infringement litigation against semiconductor manufacturers.

Litigation activities commenced in 2001 with Intel, culminating in a $13.5 million out-of-court settlement related to patent acquisitions. Subsequent successful lawsuits targeted Amtel, Broadcom, Renesas, Silicon Storage Technology, STMicroelectronics, Standard Microsystems Corporation, and VIA Technologies. CNET characterized this period as a "patent infringement litigation rampage."

Beginning in early 2006, OPTi filed multiple patent infringement suits against Nvidia, ultimately securing $14.75 million through judgments and settlements by 2009. That year also saw legal action against AMD; after procedural delays, courts ruled in favor of OPTi in May 2010 with AMD agreeing to pay between $32 million and $35 million.

In January 2007, OPTi initiated legal proceedings against Apple Inc. in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas over unauthorized use of its patent concerning "predictive snooping of cache memory" within Macintosh computers. The court ordered Apple to pay $21.7 million—comprising $19 million for infringement plus $2.7 million in prejudgment interest. Although Apple initially appealed the decision, the appeal was withdrawn by December 2010.

By 2010, OPTi Technologies Inc.’s workforce had dwindled to three employees including Marren himself. The company pursued further litigation against VIA Technologies in 2013, winning a $2.1 million judgment plus $1 million interest before ultimately losing on appeal. For fiscal years 2014 and 2015, OPTi reported no licensing income alongside operating losses. Reduced to a single employee by 2018, OPTi ultimately ceased operations entirely in September 2020.

External links

• Archived official site as of November 13, 1996
• Overview of OPTi Inc. and its product lineup at DOS Days