AMD Sues Intel!

[Sahkolihaa]

http://www.neowin.net/comments.php?id=29180&category=main

It's been a long battle for AMD to gain headway in a market Intel has dominated all these years, but now it's taken a turn for the worst (or better, depending on how you look at it).

Not long after a much discussed price increase in its own line of dual and single core CPU's, some now more expensive than Intels own comparable line of CPU's, AMD -maker of x86 microprocessors, said Tuesday it had filed an antitrust lawsuit against Intel Corp., the world’s largest maker of chips, in U.S. federal district court for the district of Delaware accusing Intel of unfair competition, which limited market share growth of AMD.

“Everywhere in the world, customers deserve freedom of choice and the benefits of innovation -- and these are being stolen away in the microprocessor market,” said Hector Ruiz, AMD chairman of the board, president and chief executive officer. “Whether through higher prices from monopoly profits, fewer choices in the marketplace or barriers to innovation – people from Osaka to Frankfurt to Chicago pay the price in cash every day for Intel’s monopoly abuses.”

AMD have also setup a website dubbed "Fair and Equal Competition Home" which also lays out the innovation the company has undertaken in the years its been in business. This looks like its going to be a very public fight and Intel has the monetary power to defend itself. Lets hope us consumers don't lose out.

Oh dear

 

[Rocket_Magnet]

now thats just getting desperate

 

[Rukee]

I can see their point, but a long large costly legal battle could increase the prices on both sides.

 

[Zur]

now thats just getting desperate

Well, the action does justify itself if you can only find Intel microprocessors in some parts of the world.

 

[Clayeth]

Even if they don't win outright, this may force intel to make some changes allowing AMD a foot in the door in new markets. It's a gamble on their part though. I'm sure prices will go up, but in the long run, it could eventually lower them.

 

[Zxanphorian]

Hmm, is this going to be a start of a new useless lawsuit wave?

 

[DeeperShade]

It's not useless if it serves a purpose zxan...

 

[Traxis]

How is it useless? If the allegations are true, then Intel should be punished. Just like any other business that does anything illegal. Everyone should be happy about this. More competition = better prices, more innovation, etc.

 

[Zxanphorian]

How is it useless? If the allegations are true, then Intel should be punished. Just like any other business that does anything illegal. Everyone should be happy about this. More competition = better prices, more innovation, etc.

Well competition isnt making a lawsuit though

 

[Bean 3:16]

As far as inside the industry, it's kinda known that Intel runs the PC market. But there are plenty of microprocessor areas (cell phones, home theater, consoles, etc) where they don't rule, or even have influence. I understand what AMD is doing, but I'm not sure how this will work out for them.

No matter...the Cell will crush them all. MWUHAHAHAHA!

 

[Traxis]

Well, letting Intel continue to break the law definitely won't help competition.
Here are some of the things Intel is accused of doing:

-- Forcing major customers such as Dell, Sony, Toshiba, Gateway,
and Hitachi into Intel-exclusive deals in return for outright
cash payments, discriminatory pricing or marketing subsidies
conditioned on the exclusion of AMD;

-- According to industry reports, and as confirmed by the
JFTC in Japan, Intel has paid Dell and Toshiba huge sums
not to do business with AMD.

-- Intel paid Sony millions for exclusivity. AMD's share of
Sony's business went from 23 percent in '02 to 8% in '03,
to 0%, where it remains today.

-- Forcing other major customers such as NEC, Acer, and Fujitsu
into partial exclusivity agreements by conditioning rebates,
allowances and market development funds (MDF) on customers'
agreement to severely limit or forego entirely purchases from
AMD;

-- Intel paid NEC several million dollars for caps on NEC's
purchases from AMD. Those caps assured Intel at least 90%
of NEC's business in Japan and imposed a worldwide cap on
the amount of AMD business NEC could do.

-- Establishing a system of discriminatory and retroactive
incentives triggered by purchases at such high levels as to
have the intended effect of denying customers the freedom to
purchase any significant volume of processors from AMD;

-- When AMD succeeded in getting on the HP retail roadmap for
mobile computers, and its products sold well, Intel
responded by withholding HP's fourth quarter 2004 rebate
check and refusing to waive HP's failure to achieve its
targeted rebate goal; it allowed HP to make up the
shortfall in succeeding quarters by promising Intel at
least 90% of HP's mainstream retail business.

-- Threatening retaliation against customers for introducing
AMD computer platforms, particularly in strategic market
segments such as commercial desktop;

-- Then-Compaq CEO Michael Capellas said in 2000 that because
of the volume of business given to AMD, Intel withheld
delivery of critical server chips. Saying "he had a gun to
his head," he told AMD he had to stop buying.

-- According to Gateway executives, their company has paid a
high price for even its limited AMD dealings. They claim
that Intel has "beaten them into 'guacamole'" in
retaliation.

-- Establishing and enforcing quotas among key retailers such as
Best Buy and Circuit City, effectively requiring them to stock
overwhelmingly or exclusively, Intel computers, artificially
limiting consumer choice;

-- AMD has been entirely shut out from Media Markt, Europe's
largest computer retailer, which accounts for 35 percent
of Germany's retail sales.

-- Office Depot declined to stock AMD-powered notebooks
regardless of the amount of financial support AMD offered,
citing the risk of retaliation.

-- Forcing PC makers and tech partners to boycott AMD product
launches or promotions;

-- Then-Intel CEO Craig Barrett threatened Acer's Chairman
with "severe consequences" for supporting the AMD Athlon
64(TM) launch. This coincided with an unexplained delay by
Intel in providing $15-20M in market development funds
owed to Acer. Acer withdrew from the launch in September
2003.

-- Abusing its market power by forcing on the industry technical
standards and products that have as their main purpose the
handicapping of AMD in the marketplace.

-- Intel denied AMD access to the highest level of membership
for the Advanced DRAM technology consortium to limit AMD's
participation in critical industry standard decisions that
would affect its business.

-- Intel designed its compilers, which translate software
programs into machine-readable language, to degrade a
program's performance if operated on a computer powered by
an AMD microprocessor.

Seems pretty damning to me.

 

[DRT-Maverick]

Well, I personally am a fan of AMD, though I'm just wondering, if they win this, how much of a foothold will they gain in the market, and what will they be able to do afterwards when it comes to the design of their own chips and such?

 

[edhe]

If they can release the clamps of intel then i'm sure most of the OEMs would take AMD over intel.

Millions of chips a year.

 

[GotBeer?]

Well, I personally am a fan of AMD, though I'm just wondering, if they win this, how much of a foothold will they gain in the market, and what will they be able to do afterwards when it comes to the design of their own chips and such?

If Intel is forced to stop bullying retailers, AMD will start showing up in more comps, increasing their profits, which will help when it comes to researching/designing new chips. More competition should also lower costs. Unfortunately, this lawsuit will probably drag on for years, and prices will increase as both companies shovel more funds into the lawsuit. Another possibility, and one I can see happening, is that Intel will use its much larger pool of resources to wait out AMD. Then, when AMD is nothing but a fond memory, Intel will be able to put its boot to everyone's neck.

 

[Traxis]

AMD would really need to find a way to increase their production capacity, though. As it stands now, they wouldn't be able to fully supply a company like Dell. AMD only has 1 CPU fabrication facility, Intel has 11.

 

[Clayeth]

Well competition isnt making a lawsuit though

That's right, Intel preventing competition, which is illegal, is causing the lawsuit. Or at least that's what it charges. I don't know enough about the details outside the US market to say which side I believe, but I would assume that a company as dominant as Intel would in fact be trying to prevent anyone else from moving into the market.

IF intel isn't playing by the rules, this would be the only way to combat that. I'm not sure what you're arguing about. It's not like someone is suing because they don't realize eating a can of lard is unhealthy.

As for the supply issue, I'm sure if they were confident that they could get the business to support more factories they would gladly expand capacity.

 

[Sir_Brizz]

The ironic thing is that AMD used to be Intel back in the old days. They were split up over an antitrust lawsuit by IBM (iirc) initially.

 

[The Dopefish]

This just in: Moses sues Jesus for being more popular than him.

 

[JaFO]

So that's why their latest chips are at Intel-level of pricing ?

 

[JonAzz]

This just in: Moses sues Jesus for being more popular than him.

rofl! no way!!!


If AMD wins, will they make better chips? err better than the current ones