Intel to shut down AMD within 2 months...

[skunksmash]

Intel says GlobalFoundries deal breaches AMD cross-licensing agreement


Intel Corporation has sent notice to its chief competitor Advanced Micro Devices that it believes AMD has breached a patent cross-licensing agreement that the two reached in 2001. The agreement covered royalty payments by AMD in regards to aspects of the x86 instruction set used in CPUs, as well as foundry and production rights.

AMD recently spun off its fabs in a multi-billion dollar deal involving Advanced Technology Investment Company (ATIC) and Mubadala Development, both solely owned by the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. The deal funnelled badly needed cash and debt relief into AMD, which has been struggling for several years to compete against Intel's CPUs. It also led to the creation of GlobalFoundries, an integrated circuit foundry which will compete against the likes of TSMC and Chartered Semiconductor for business. AMD would continue to be GlobalFoundries' primary customer.

However, Intel believes that GlobalFoundries is not a subsidiary under the terms of the agreement, and is therefore not licensed to produce CPUs that use key technologies licensed under the 2001 patent cross-license agreement.

Intel also said that the structure of the deal between AMD and ATIC breaches a confidential portion of that agreement, and it has asked AMD to make the relevant portion of the agreement public, but so far AMD has declined to do so. AMD's breach could result in the loss of licenses and rights granted to AMD by Intel under the agreement.

If GlobalFoundries is not recognized as a subsidary of AMD, it will have to negotiate with Intel to secure patents that would allow it to continue to produce AMD's CPUs at its fabs in Dresden. Intel has the option of securing a court injunction to halt production until the dispute is settled. Negotiation of a patent licensing agreement could take months, if not years.

"Intellectual property is a cornerstone of Intel's technology leadership and for more than 30 years, the company has believed in the strategic importance of licensing intellectual property in exchange for fair value. However AMD cannot unilaterally extend Intel's licensing rights to a third party without Intel's consent," said Bruce Sewell, Senior Vice President and General Counsel for Intel.

"We have attempted to address our concerns with AMD without success since October. We are willing to find a resolution but at the same time we have an obligation to our stockholders to protect the billions of dollars we've invested in intellectual property".

In a filling with the Securities and Exchange Commission, AMD stated Intel "purports to terminate the Company's rights and licenses under the Cross License in 60 days if the alleged breach has not been corrected".

Intel claims that in response to the material breach notification it sent out, AMD claimed Intel breached the agreement by notifying AMD of its breach.

AMD defended itself, with Harry Wolin, AMD's Senior Vice President and General Counsel, stating that Intel's unilateral "purported attempt to terminate the Company’s rights and licenses under the Cross License itself constitutes a material breach of the Cross License by Intel".

Under the terms of the license agreement, the notification to AMD means the two parties will attempt to resolve the dispute through third party mediation.

source


my my.....:sarc:..... what do we all think of this..??






SK

 

[Romulinx2]

Wow, another big fight.
AMD in one corner INTEL in the other, seconds out....Round One!!

 

[jimbo45]

Wouldn't this planet be a FAR FAR better place if we could get rid of 99% of Lawyers and Banks.

I really get sick of this "Corporate" greed mentality -- If AMD didn't exist does Intel REALLY think it would do more business -- Past experiences show that these type of TOTAL MONEY WASTING COURT ROOM DRAMAS would be far better played out on Daytime TV ( US Channel COURT TV) .

Look what happened to IBM when they had a go with this sort of Bovine Scatology against Microsoft .

Not only did they lose badly -- even though IBM's OS/2 was a far superior product against the fledgling Windows product they now are not even a hardware company at all .

and further as a "Software Outsourcer" on a load of SAP projects their reputation falls FAR FAR below the old Andersens consulting (or is it now called "Accenture or "Accidenture") .

What a SAD demise for one of the really GREAT innovative (and responsible) companies of the 20th century.

It's about time people stopped being beholden to these STUPID courts and their lickspittle judges.

Just tell them to go and make a sexual move with a Duck and get on with it Wild West fashion.

(Added -- If AMD feels threatened in the USA they can always relocate to Iceland -- we'd welcome them with open arms -- and as our Banks don't have any money left any court action would be totally pointless. We've CHEAP CLEAN hydro thermal energy as well which should please the Green Party.

Our only problem is every time we access any money the UK in it's wisdom is throwing around Anti-Terrorism legislation (Against THIS SMALL COUNTRY of all people).

I'll probably get deported tomorrow as "an undesirable alien" however they aren't all horrible in the UK --just Gordon Clown and his "Scottish Mafia".

Their Courts and lawyers however are just as bad as the USA -- OT But I've just been charged 35 GBP by a UK bank because an Internet Bank transfer took an extra day to clear -- from a Bank that's just been given MILLIONS (or is it Trillions) of GBP to stop it going Bust and the chairman has been awarded nearly 20,000 GBP A WEEK pension for life even though he's only 50.

Fair old Planet these days don't you think from "The Peoples Government"..



Cheers
jimbo

 

[black dog]

I hate to think how much Intels processors will cost if they lose their only real competition.
If AMD had not been around, they would probably still be selling P4's and charging an outrageous price for them.

Consumers will be the big losers if Intel gains a Microsoft style monopoly.

Go AMD!!

 

[Digger]

I hate to think how much Intels processors will cost if they lose their only real competition.
If AMD had not been around, they would probably still be selling P4's and charging an outrageous price for them.

Consumers will be the big losers if Intel gains a Microsoft style monopoly.

Go AMD!!

I second that!

 

[DaveTaylor]

Third!

 

[LePoilu]

I think that Intel can not terminate the Rights of AMD like that, and they know it! For the only big reason that the agreement are bidirectional. Intel Use x64 technology that AMD made for the Athlon64.

Breaking x86 licence for AMD, and AMD can break the "x64" licence of Intel. At this time Intel's CPU are all using emt64 which are AMD64 copy-paste. So all of the Intel CPU will be "illegal" as AMD CPU became illegal without the x86 licence

This is just politics ...

 

[Mark]

I think that Intel can not terminate the Rights of AMD like that, and they not it! For the only big reason that the agrement are bidirectionnal. Intel Use x64 technology that AMD made for the Athlon64.

Breaking x86 licence for AMD, and AMD can break the "x64" licence of Intel. At this time Intel's CPU are all using emt64 which are AMD64 copy-paste. So all of the Intel CPU will be "illegal" as AMD CPU becam illegal without the x86 licence

This is just politics ...

Wouldn't Intel have to breach their contract with AMD to for AMD to remove Intel's right to x64 Technologies?

 

[LePoilu]

Wouldn't Intel have to breach their contract with AMD to for AMD to remove Intel's right to x64 Technologies?

In fact nobody know the exact terms of the contract.

But we know that they have some bidirectionnal accord. AMD can use x86.. and Intel can use AMd's technologies like x64 memory controler on the chip, etc..

At this time there's no "legal" action from Intel against AMD. It's only words and Lawyers ...

 

[angryman]

+1 to keep AMD around.

Everyone needs someone to check themselves against.

 

[Romulinx2]

I agree with the "keep AMD" I wouldn't like to see them shut down.

 

[darkassain]

Intel wouldnt *kill* AMD...
they *will* slow their sales but would not kill them.....
Intel needs AMD and same with AMD....
its called MAD... (Mutually Assured Destruction)
where if AMD died i would think they would take AMDx64 with them (either or they would milk the deal it till the cows come home) and would have to make a new instruction set (since AMD is gone with the patent) and would make all current x64 software impossible to use...(unless you VM your software but then whats the use of that since what you want is the power and speed of x64...)
and if intel died there goes x86 which is where AMD and pretty much the Industry is based on (although that Cell-cpu [i remember that there was a laptop shown with a Cell CPU and it was blazing Fast] would technically still live but again would need a compatibility layer which would take some cpu power and would not be as a stable computer )
it would pretty much *kill* the industry since the x86 tech patents are completely own by intel and noone else...
----------------------------------rant begins---------------------------------
i wish my country wasnt as Capitalist as currently is...
it was the lack of regulation which made this happen...
i say if transperancy with easy to understand data
i say xbrl should be the gold standard for every company so that it would take less time for regulators to look and regulate a company and would give anyone the power to view how a company is doing...
reason im saying this is because if it werent for that we would have been able to have seen the signs of this...
but like every recession once it perks back up noone cares for regulation or even cares...
they just like that everyone is buying and selling....

which is why i sometimes hate this country (or some of its people)
oh well this ends my rant on politics sorry for stealing a few minutes of your time....
-------------------------------------rant ends-------------------------------

 

[smarteyeball]

+ another

Closing AMD would be bad for the consumer in the long run.

And yeah DA, we sometimes hate your country too

Once the recession is over, it will be back to business as usual

 

[aoneofakind]

I highly doubt that AMD will be shut-down. They are a top-notch company and in my opinion for us that don't have the deeper pockets, we rely on AMD and they've honestly got some amazing products at some amazing prices.

Long live AMD!

 

[garysgold]

Hi Smartey,

Please don't hate the country, just the politicians. Most of us hate them too. Seems we don't get to vote for the best person for the job anymore, just the least incompetent. The dregs of society IMO. When you ask someone with real intelligence if they will run the answer is always 'No way I want that job.'

 

[DocBrown]

If it says "Intel Inside" it should lay over on it's side!

My AMD machines have always preformed better IMO!

 

[smarteyeball]

Hi Smartey,

Please don't hate the country, just the politicians. Most of us hate them too. Seems we don't get to vote for the best person for the job anymore, just the least incompetent. The dregs of society IMO. When you ask someone with real intelligence if they will run the answer is always 'No way I want that job.'

Don't get me wrong mate, I don't hate Americans nor am I anti-USA. It's just that certain aspects of American culture and it's negative influential impacts are hard not to create any other feeling but ones of loathing. (ie Creating a Litigious Society)

As for hating "Liarticians", just like breathing, it's universal

 

[johngalt]

Born and raised in the good ole US of A and here's my take on the whole shebang.

Intel is trying to figure out exactly how AMD circumvented their agreement before, so they can then force AMD into a new agreement that allows Intel some added benefits on the EMT64T technology that it desperately wants in order to move forward. This is not about shutting down AMD - no one better than the Board at Intel knows this, so all you folks screaming "Bloody whatever" about Intel trying to shut AMD down need to wake up and get a serious reality check. Intel *needs* AMD around for at least another couple of decades - with the sheer performance edge that Intel has exhibited in recent years (coincidentally starting not long after this agreement was signed) Intel knows that trying to kill off AMD now would be its biggest mistake ever - b/c 64bit processing is exploding right now and new technology is going to be needed in order to move forward into the next generation of processing.

Now, having said that, I too, hate some of the policies and actions of this country (as a nation) and even more so of many of its peoples both as a group and as individuals. There is a lot wrong with this place, but there is also a lot right with it - and as long as capitalism in its purest sense still exists (and yes, it *does* exist in its purest sense - it is not all about cheating the next man and hurting your customer in every business) I will continue to live here and carve my own niche.

If there ever comes a day that only greed based capitalism exists throughout the entire land, I'll move in a heartbeat.

 

[EpicThorn]

/start rant
Simply put, AMD messed up and should be punished accordingly. They breached a contract and should deal with it ASAP and get back to work.
Intel may very well have the power to make AMD stop production, but they wont.
No Intel will not shut them down because Intel need AMD as their rivals because they need someone to compete against. You just can't produce an exceptional product and make advances in technology without an opponent.
Look at Holden Vs. Ford for example, do you honestly think the build quality of either car be as good if the other company did not exist? No, it wouldn't!
When Ford had a better fuel injected vehicle in the mid 80's, what did Holden do....They purchased the rights to produce the Nissan RB30e powerplant and put it into the VL Commodore.
Intel & AMD will battle head to head (albeit with Intel wearing the crown and AMD wearing a MaxiPad) for many years to come.
I am an Intel fan, but without AMD my C2D wouldn't be running 64bit as good as it does!
/End rant

Thorn