AfterDawn: Tech news

AMD collects $1.25 billion check from Intel

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 11 Dec 2009 1:06 User comments (12)

AMD collects $1.25 billion check from Intel Last month Intel agreed to pay rival chip-maker AMD $1.25 billion USD to settle all legal complaints, most stemming from anti-competition suits filed in the US and the EU.
Today, AMD has confirmed they have received the full $1.25 billion settlement check, and all complaints are finished.

Additionally, both sides agreed on a renewed five-year cross-license agreement. AMD says they are beyond satisfied with the agreement as it will allow the chip makers to compete "on a level playing field."

Intel must also now follow a new set of guidelines agreed upon by both companies.

The larger chip maker is still on the hook in the EU however, with the EC threatening a billion dollar fine for patent violations.

Previous Next  

12 user comments

111.12.2009 13:40

Pum Pom Pum Pom!!

211.12.2009 16:50

Wootwoot yay AMD lol

311.12.2009 17:26

All this happening the year i decide to go back to Intel Quad Core hey i have no complaints for either company on their Chips they both make great processors and they do their job for me. The only reason i went back to Intel was that my motherboard died and soo i re-built the machine and decided on Intel and have to say i don't notice much difference in how it runs my programs but it does run faster cause i had a sephron AMD chip before...soo there are some massive differences but nothing that surprised me too much.

411.12.2009 18:28

Intel just got CLOCKED hahah!
i wonder how much AMD's legal bills were? atleast they can move fwd & not mess around with intel's evil legal stuff anymore.
Why can't we all just get along?

511.12.2009 19:03

Good for AMD. I firmly believe Intel did many shady things and witnessed some first hand back when I worked retail. Intel Reps would come into the computer department of the store and tell the department manager and store manager that all non-Intel machines are to go on the back shelf and logos of the competing processors cannot be displayed. At this time it was the AMD K5 and K6 generation processors and some cyrix processor based units. I even heard them give what they called training sessions where the Intel Reps instructed the sales people to tell customers to say the competing processors had loads of compatibility problems. I worked there for a few years through the original Athlon and most of the people fell in line and spread the lies. I however knew better and just stuck to the truth but I was a bench tech and not a salesman.

I remember one situation where the Intel rep was there all morning and decided to buy lunch for the whole department but came back and did not get lunch for me and another guy because we were kind of AMD fans but processor agnostic for the most part. Basically we did not fall in line with the Intel lies. The rep said "Oh I am sorry I forgot you guys were here, I'll get you next time". Yeah well that never happened. From that point on I built all my personal computers with AMD chips and they have done pretty awesome by me. I will use an AMD quad Core in my next set up I plan to build in a few months. Intel makes a fine chip now but their top of the line is way too expensive and you would never catch me with a P4 processor. Those were junk. The only Intel Processor machine I use is my work laptop with a Core 2 Duo in it but my other work computer is AMD and so is my wife's laptop and my home computer. Oh and I have a C2D Macbook too but I rarely use that only for work when I have to suppor the macs or test something on MacOS.

613.12.2009 15:41

Go AMD! I hope to see you take the performance crown once again. Competition is essential in this market.

713.12.2009 16:27

@bobiroc: that store wouldn't happen to be Best Buy or Circuit City would it??

813.12.2009 17:07

Originally posted by Ducky04:
@bobiroc: that store wouldn't happen to be Best Buy or Circuit City would it??
Why yes it would be a Best Buy. How did you ever guess? ;)

914.12.2009 01:40

Their performance at the bestbuy/compUSA stores ignored, they did some far worse things. At least people had the option of going AMD if they were smart enough to ignore the braindead sales monkeys when the K6-2/3 was around...when the Athlon came out, intel threatened to stop chipset sales to any mainboard maker who made a slot-A board...and it worked for several months. Asus (then a good company) made 2 revisions of their Slot-A board before they even admited it existed, and most companies didn't even dare to do that much. OEMs didn't dare touch the athlong at first either; lest Intel would stop selling them processors.

The performance crown will contune to get passed back between the companies, but the ***hole crown has been in Intel's possession for a long time...too long for 1.25 billion to settle. What about all the people who had to settle for intel processors instead of the superiour Athlon that costed less? Where is their compensation?

1020.12.2009 14:39

To be honest I have not built an Intel system since I first came across the 100 mhz AMD 486, and believe me I have built 100s.

I have only one grouse though. Their current implementation of USB in the chipset lacks a lot to be desired. I wonder if any one has had a problem with it. A 16 GB Kingston pen drive gives error without fail. My usb connected 4 port KVM switch won't function properly on booting up. Usually the keyboard does not work and the KVM switch has to be reset. No problem with a via chipset C3+CN7 motherboard nor with nVidia chipset Athlon64 mother board either. No problem with addon USB 2 pci card with via chipset. The motherboard manufacturer MSI are totally non responsive. AMD has no links to file a complaint or get help.

I guess just on this count I will have to move to Intel.

1124.12.2009 04:53

Originally posted by pmshah:
To be honest I have not built an Intel system since I first came across the 100 mhz AMD 486, and believe me I have built 100s.

I have only one grouse though. Their current implementation of USB in the chipset lacks a lot to be desired. I wonder if any one has had a problem with it. A 16 GB Kingston pen drive gives error without fail. My usb connected 4 port KVM switch won't function properly on booting up. Usually the keyboard does not work and the KVM switch has to be reset. No problem with a via chipset C3+CN7 motherboard nor with nVidia chipset Athlon64 mother board either. No problem with addon USB 2 pci card with via chipset. The motherboard manufacturer MSI are totally non responsive. AMD has no links to file a complaint or get help.

I guess just on this count I will have to move to Intel.
You know the processor really has nothing to do with the usb ports. Its all the motherboard and associated chipset. From my experience MSI does not have the best quality stuff, I would suggest moving to Gigabyte or Asus.

Also I am glad that the basterds at Intel have finally ponied up and admitted to or at least settled this anti-trust matter. I still will never own any Intel based systems but I am glad that this is over.
This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 24 Dec 2009 @ 4:56

1225.12.2009 01:46

Originally posted by pmshah:
To be honest I have not built an Intel system since I first came across the 100 mhz AMD 486, and believe me I have built 100s.

I have only one grouse though. Their current implementation of USB in the chipset lacks a lot to be desired. I wonder if any one has had a problem with it. A 16 GB Kingston pen drive gives error without fail. My usb connected 4 port KVM switch won't function properly on booting up. Usually the keyboard does not work and the KVM switch has to be reset. No problem with a via chipset C3+CN7 motherboard nor with nVidia chipset Athlon64 mother board either. No problem with addon USB 2 pci card with via chipset. The motherboard manufacturer MSI are totally non responsive. AMD has no links to file a complaint or get help.

I guess just on this count I will have to move to Intel.
While I have had issues with some Kingson flash drives, these units would not work with intel based systems either. I think it is just your cheap-o mainboard.

Comments have been disabled for this article.

News archive