@Piru:
"The patent, 6,535,988, was granted to Intel on March 18th last, and was invented by David L. Poisner at the Folsom, California site."
Yep, it was granted the 18th of March. Yes, it was filed in 1999. Not the inquirer's fault, really. Blame the US patent office for that one...
Addendum:
If you had bothered to READ the actual article AND read that link you had posted, you would have seen that as well as I did. Both are clearly marked with grant date and patent number... Duh.
