E-mail key to AMD's antitrust fight

Advanced Micro Devices will subpoena thousands of e-mail messages, including ones from its key partners if needed, to help prove its antitrust case against rival Intel, a lawyer for the chipmaker said.

Charles Diamond, a lawyer at O'Melveny & Myers and AMD's lead outside counsel, told CNET News.com on Tuesday that the computer makers, executives, retailers and other parties mentioned in the lawsuit may also find themselves in court and their documents subpoenaed.

"There is going to be a lot of 'he said, she said' in this case," Diamond said, noting that AMD's legal team is asking its potential witnesses to begin securing e-mail and other correspondence.

AMD filed its lawsuit against Intel Monday in U.S. District Court in Delaware. The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based chipmaker claims that Intel is using monopolistic business practices, such as threatening retaliation against customers that do business with AMD. It is asking the court to impose punitive damages.

Santa Clara, Calif.-based Intel has refuted the charges, calling its rival's legal case "full of excuses and speculation."

Attorney Diamond said his client initially based its complaint on some 80 interviews between AMD and its partners and customers. AMD's legal team said it will now use the "period of discovery," where companies may be required to submit corporate data as evidence, to fuel the chipmaker's case.

However, not all of the parties mentioned in AMD's 48-page brief are eager to discuss their relationship with Intel.

Computer makers from Dell to Hewlett-Packard declined to comment, as did Michael Capellas, former Compaq chief executive, and Ted Waitt, former Gateway CEO.

Analysts said it's no surprise these players wanted to remain mum on the topic.

"It's human nature," said Hans Mosesmann, a senior semiconductor analyst at Moors & Cabot. "No one wants to be dragged into someone else's fight."

Supermicro and AMD
The exception seems to be Supermicro Computer, which assembles systems for servers. AMD cited the company in its lawsuit as being reluctant to use AMD's chips.

"Supermicro, the preeminent system assembler for servers and other high-end computers, historically has followed the Dell strategy of never buying from AMD. This arrangement foreclosed AMD from a large part of the approximately one-fifth of the server sector not controlled by the Tier One (PC makers)," AMD stated in its complaint.

But after two years of negotiations, Supermicro agreed last year to begin developing a server powered by an AMD Opteron processor.

"We use AMD for our customers (that make hardware), and it's a small percent," said Michael Kalodrich, a Supermicro spokesman. "We had some pressure from our customers for quite some time to carry AMD, and we decided to do it to better serve them."

Last May, Supermicro began carrying AMD's chips, Kalodrich said.

AMD's brief includes various reports of Intel's interactions with some 38 companies, including large-scale computer makers, small system builders, wholesale distributors and retailers.

Among AMD's charges against Intel in the suit:

• Intel paid Sony multimillion-dollar sums in 2003, disguised as discounts and promotional support, in exchange for absolute microprocessor exclusivity. Sony abruptly canceled an AMD Mobile Athlon notebook model.
• Intel paid Toshiba a "very substantial" amount in 2001 not to use AMD processors. Toshiba thereupon dropped AMD. Its executives told AMD that Intel's financial inducements amounted to "cocaine."
• In the summer of 2002, Fujitsu informed AMD that Intel had pressured the Japanese PC maker to remove Fujitsu's AMD-powered desktop models from its Web site.
• Intel issued a "special discount" on Celeron processors that Fujitsu-Siemens accepted, in exchange for hiding its AMD computers on its Web site and removing all references to commercial AMD-powered products in the company's retail catalog.

[4nchip]

Intel Emailed Me last year.

They said if I didnt switch they would buy Apple computer and
ruin it. I wish I saved that email now.

[domino360]

To BS or not BS from AMD?

AMDs claim of monopoly is just an Inferiority Complex syndrome.

I don't care about chip manufacturers as long as they don't make faulty products (IBM has a reputation with that), and I'm not fanatical about Intel, AMD or any of them. My ultimate system doesn't exist yet due to too many egocentric manufacturers.

If AMD is suing Intel because of the Intel logo on many comercials from PC manufacturers? Are these people stupid or pretending to forget something? When you see those crappy Dell ads with Intel inside, Intel has to pay for that logo (around 40% of the ad itself) to appear on the first place. So, AMD didn't you know that advertising doesn't come cheap?

I think this lawsuit is typical BS and I'm amazed of how shallow AMD can be to get 15 seconds of fame.

Maybe Intel should sue AMD for false advertising on Opteron 64. Or I guess that AMD doesn't want to talk about that.

Now, did AMD came out with 64 bit chips long before Intel did? Is that accurate description? Is it 64 bit extension or 64 bit architecture? AMD did released 2x32 bit chips that acted as dual-core and for marketing BS they called it 64 bit. It's only in June 2005 that 64 bit coding (extension) was added on AMD chips, and that's not 100% 64 bit either. In the semiconductor industry AMDs claim of 64 bit was a joke and that's why it didn't get much attention or publicity from the industry. But, a lot of consumers that don't know much about chip design bought the marketing BS AMD released and that helped AMD gain some market share. You could say this was false advertising, and most people don't know about it. AMD has a lot of problems releasing a fully 64 bit architecture chip. At the moment the only manufacturers competent of 64 bit architecture are Fujutsu, Texas Instruments, Intel, IBM and Silicone Graphics.

So AMD, you are not that clean as you think. And neither Apple, IBM, Microsoft, Adobe or Intel for that matter too.

I guess that if you practice 100% Marketing BS, in the end it means monopoly. The funny thing about this is that no corporation will admit on camera that they want full market share. But behind doors they always say "We envision for everyone to use our products". So AMD, STOP complaining like a little kid about the slice of cake you have, and concentrate in making better products. This year you are ahead because Intel relaxed its' RD. If you continue with inovative producs you'll gain loyalty and market share. Shallow behavior from your part would mean that I and many people will dump your stock for Big Macs.

And by the way, Steve Jobs doesn't bend over for anybody.

[arjun_nair]

GET THIS STRAIGHT

You should realize that firstly for having 64 bit architecture one needs much more than just a processor that is 64 bit. And yes the 64 bit processors developed my AMD is built on 64 bit architecture. Moreover how would you know if AMD is more reliable than intel if you cant see a PC with AMD?? AMD is placing a lawsuit against intel for this very reason and not for media hype. After all promoting ones product is one thing; degrading someone else`s is another. Judge for yourself if you would put up with your competitor going and telling the whole world not to use your products and that he would pay them if they would not...

[arjun_nair]

Its all in the figures

AMD should have realized that there was something fishy when dell had promised to use amd chipsets in 2001 and later on declined. though AMD powered pcs are far better in performance INTEL runs on brand name and brand image. But the monopoly should stop and consumers know better than assemblers. Its kind of shocking as to why pc assemblers would not use AMD chipsets when the 64 bit tech wsa available with AMD for the first time. So was the case with the Dual core. The amd FX 60 probably one of the most performance oriented processors were not used in any of the branded PCs. It is quite obvious that intel would have paid lumpsum to pc giants because they were awar that if PCs rolled out with the top end processors from AMD also cheaper in comparison to INTEL processors, their name would go to dogs.
Besides, the computer market stands by word of the mouth. So if anybody who buys an AMD powered PC and realizes that it is better and more value for money then certainly customers would want only amd chipsets. Lets compare numbers for a start... AMD processors have transfer rates of 2000MHz (bus speed), the socket 939 ansures faster processing and 64 bit architecture all put together make AMD a definite choice for gamers. It is also interesting to note that Nvidia the worlds laeding GPU manufacturers prefer AMD processors. This is evident from the fact that most motherboards built with nvidia graphics are specifically for AMD.I am a hardcore gamer and personally i know how much difference a processor makes to a computer be it a laptop or a PC.