Piles of Evidence Delay Intel Antitrust Trial

Payment settles all antitrust and patent suits

(AP) - Intel says it is paying AMD, its largest rival in the computer chip market, $1.25 billion to settle all antitrust and patent suits, and has agreed to abide by a set of "business practice provisions." In return, AMD, which had been complaining to regulators for five years that Intel has broken antitrust laws to limit its market share, will drop suits in the US and Japan, and withdraw those complaints. More»

Says chipmaker paid kickbacks, strongarmed manufacturers

(NEWSER) - New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo filed an antitrust suit against Intel today, accusing it of “a worldwide, systematic campaign of illegal conduct.” Cuomo says Intel paid computer manufacturers billions in kickbacks provided they didn’t produce computers with rival chips. The money was disguised as “rebates,” and the recipients allegedly include HP, IBM, and Dell. The suit is the result of an investigation began in January 2008. Intel’s already facing similar charges in the EU, and a separate suit from AMD. More»

'Fact tags' only confused customers: Intel exec

(NEWSER) - PC makers seem to have gotten the hint and are beginning to hawk their wares not with dazzling technobabble but with information useful to the average consumer, the New York Times reports. For years, tech concerns have touted their achievements in impenetrable language on “fact tags” (DDR2 RAM, anyone?), but that approach may not fly when most people just want a fast Internet connection. “We have been stuck in 1995,” an AMD exec says. “We are basically the laggards.” More»

Before the iMac, there were mega machines

(NEWSER) - Convenience is a given when it comes to today's PCs, but the machine you're reading this on has come a long way. Major transformations date as far back as the early 19th century. Live Science gives the back-story on 10 revolutionary computers.

1. The Difference Engine, 1822: Designed by Charles Babbage but not built until decades later, today's replicas show this math-table-generating machine to work flawlessly.
2. ENIAC, 1946: This US Army computer weighed 30 tons, used 17,478 vacuum tubes, and consumed 150 kilowatts.

Major coup in battle between rival chipmakers

(NEWSER) - In an important win over its sometimes-struggling rival, Intel has wooed away AMD client DreamWorks Animation. DreamWorks will replace its current servers and computer workstations, which use AMD chips, with new Intel-powered ones. The studio said the change will make its computing faster and help it start producing 3-D animation, reports the Wall Street Journal. More»