AMD won't get no Intel satisfaction

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MARKET RESEARCH firm iSuppli said it was unlikely that chip firm AMD will win its antitrust case against chip giant Intel.

Matthew Wilkins, senior CPU analyst at the firm, said in a note to iSuppli's clients that the reason AMD is likely to fail is because the charges are difficult to prove.

As an example, Wilkins said showing that Dell got cash for buying Intel and not AMD CPUs "is no minor task". And, he points out, the other major OEMs named in the lawsuit are unlikely "to go out of their way" to help AMD.

Isuppli thinks that a successful outcome might be AMD getting a payment from Intel, although Watkins suspects that even if that happens, Intel would not admit wrongdoing, or apologise.

He said the timing of the AMD law suit raises a few questions. It's easy to argue that AMD is more competitive now with Intel than it's ever been, with its Opteron chips selling very well and have a performance lead to boot.

But, said Wilkins: "Even if all Intel customers decide to switch to AMD X86 microprocessors, AMD would not have the capacity to fulfil the demand."

The fact is, he claimed, AMD still has problems with its perception as an enterprise supplier, even though that perception has improved because of its "excellent execution, technical innovation, and performance".

The lawsuit is about hard cash, he believes. He said AMD is implying that if customer had a freedom of choice, which they now allegedly lack, they'd spend more money with AMD.

Source