Intel and rival chipmaker AMD have battled for years. Some of the battles have been the normal type seen in the tech industry: with competing products. Others have been in the courtroom,. On Thursday, Intel announced it will pay AMD $1.25 billion to settle their patent and antitrust disputes.
Intel and AMD have fought for years. For a long time, while AMD had a cross-licensing agreement with Intel that allowed it to make its own x86 compatible CPUs, its processors trailed Intel in performance and other aspects, such as power management, though AMD CPUs were always cheaper..
There was a relatively short time, however, AMD’s Athlon CPUs were the processor of choice for gamers, when it overtook Intel in terms of CPU performance. That changed again, and Intel has since had a generous performance advantage over its rival.
However, outside the tech arena, Intel and AMD have been involved in lawsuits and judgments, around antitrust and licensing issues. AMD has said, and some countries have agreed, that Intel used its muscle to convince OEMs, such as HP and Dell, to buy its CPUs ahead of AMD CPUs.
Recent reports have stated that Intel called these "rebates," but they were really payments, as indicated in various documents, to convince OEMs to buy Intel CPUs.
As a part of the settlement above, AMD will agree to drop any pending litigation against Intel. This includes ongoing cases in Japan and Delaware.
There will be more details after a scheduled 7 AM PST press conference with the two companies.
Also see NY's Cuomo Files Antitrust Suit Against Intel
Written by Michael Santo
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