AMD still doesn't trust Intel
Settlement or no settlement, Advanced Micro Devices CEO Dirk Meyer still doesn’t trust Intel. That much was clear when I sat across the table from him last week at AMD headquarters in Sunnyvale.
I had a chance to talk to Meyer during the AMD analyst meeting last Wednesday. In a series of presentations that morning, Meyer and his lieutenants had made a cogent case that 2010 would be their comeback year. They have cut costs, pared non-core businesses, and returned to designing good chips and delivering them on time. Next year the company plans to begin selling several new chips, including a first: one that has a microprocessor and a graphics processor on the same chip.
But what about Intel (INTC), I asked him. In the past when AMD (AMD) had good products, you accused the chip giant of using its market dominance to unfairly squash you. (Intel has maintained that it plays by the rules.) Why should this time be any different? Do you think the playing field is level now?
Meyer knew what I didn’t: that in a few hours, he and Intel CEO Paul Otellini would announce a massive $1.25 billion legal settlement with Intel that’s supposed to put the companies’ acrimonious past behind them. That didn’t seem to change Meyer’s outlook on the chip giant, however.
“I would not tell any regulator around the world who’s still looking at Intel’s business practices to stop,” Meyer said. “The work that we’ve done needs to continue.”
Sounds to me like these two rivals might have put down the legal hatchet for now, but they haven’t quite buried it.
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Jake you are a tool. AMD is trying to get Intel's technology??? What are you talking about. Intel's 30 year old instruction set??? They have a cross patent licensing agreement, which mean Intel wants to use AMDs technology too. Intel is using all of AMD's innovations. AMD introduced DDR memory, higher FSB's, larger on die caches, 64-bit cpus, dual core, quad core, made x86 the mainstream workstation/server cpus with the Athlon MP and Opteron, Integrated Memory Controller, Direct Connect Architecture, and now Intel wants to copy AMD's intention of putting GPUs in CPUs.
Why should AMD trust Intel? For all the anti-competitive things that Intel did and found guilty around the globe (Japan, Korea, and EU), the big company doesn't think it did anything wrong. In the Q&A of last Friday's conference call by Intel, a reporter from the Financial Times asked, "So this involves no changes at all in Intel's behavior, full stop?" One of the Intel execs replied, "No changes at all."
Obvious enough, anti-competitiveness is right inside Intel's gene. When confronted with justice, the company always thinks only others are wrong and it is free to do whatever it pleases to, and to interpret the laws however it likes to. Why should anyone trust a monstrous company like this? I don't even think Intel's own employees should trust this company.
AMD is desperate and to make it clear AMD is trying to get INTEL'S technology; HOW CAN BE THAT FAIR?? STOP IT NOW……….
Wow, Tom. You really crushed the poor guy. Have mercy!