EU has published some of their evidence in the Intel case

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GaiaHunter

Diamond Member
Jul 13, 2008
3,732
432
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Originally posted by: Phynaz
High performance and low price don't go together. If their products had been high performance then they would have been high priced.

What doesn't go together is how higher performance at lower or same price doesn't sell more than lower performance at same or higher price.

Or are you saying that the Athlon64 and the X2s weren't higher performance than the P4 and PD?

 

Cogman

Lifer
Sep 19, 2000
10,286
147
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Originally posted by: Phynaz
Originally posted by: drizek
Originally posted by: Phynaz
Originally posted by: drizek
Originally posted by: OCguy
AMD needs to start concentrating on making a product that people will buy instead of crying to the EU.

Their GPU division figured out that right performance + right price, relative to your competition = sales.

Their CPU division has been delivering high performance and low priced products for years, and they haven't gotten anywhere. These emails help explain why that is.


High performance and low price don't go together. If their products had been high performance then they would have been high priced.

Athlon32 and 64 were generally faster and cheaper than the Pentium 4. By the time the Prescott came out, the Pentium 4 was basically a joke.

In that case AMD got exactly what they deserved for pricing a superior product at an inferior price.

Of course to say the Northwoods were slower than the Athlon of the day or a "joke" makes your entire train of reasoning and argument invalid.

You have absolutely no business sense. If people don't know about your company, your products, and the competition is a super giant that just has to think of a new product name to turn a profit, you don't price your products so that people will say "Hey look, super-giant a has better products FOR A CHEAPER PRICE why should we go with this no-name company?"

AMD is pricing their products at what they think they can sell them at, not at what they are worth. Any businessman who is worth anything could tell you that for any product, that is how you do things.

As for the P4 2.4C non-sense. You have to be kidding me. Every review from the dawn of the Barton will tell you that it performed neck and neck with the 2.4C. And at a price point of around $90. What was the P4 2.4C price point? $180. That's DOUBLE the cost for a processor that was on even footing.

As for the 2500+ not overclocking, don't make me laugh. It was KNOWN for its overclockability. You could often get it up to 3200+ speeds with a simple FSB adjust.

If you don't believe that the althons of the day where fast, go look up some reviews. From athlon xp to the athlon X2's AMD was performing phenomenally against intel. That all changed with the Core2 was released. But up to that point, AMD was creaming them in just about everything except for sales. And all at a lower price point.
 

Phynaz

Lifer
Mar 13, 2006
10,140
819
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Originally posted by: GaiaHunter
Originally posted by: Phynaz
High performance and low price don't go together. If their products had been high performance then they would have been high priced.

What doesn't go together is how higher performance at lower or same price doesn't sell more than lower performance at same or higher price.

Or are you saying that the Athlon64 and the X2s weren't higher performance than the P4 and PD?

Some of the Athlons were faster than P4's, some weren't.

When the X2's were beating the the PD in performance, they were selling for a lot more money than a PD, and AMD couldn't produce enough of them to meet demand.
 

Phynaz

Lifer
Mar 13, 2006
10,140
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AMD is pricing their products at what they think they can sell them at, not at what they are worth.

What you can sell something at is what it's worth.

I stopped reading after that.
 

Cogman

Lifer
Sep 19, 2000
10,286
147
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Originally posted by: Lothar
P4 2.4C was the Barton 2500+ competitor.
Same price segment, performed better and overclocked better.
I know because I own both rigs.

Athlon XP 2500+ Barton @ 2.2GHz
Asus A7N8X Deluxe NF2 Ultra 400

Intel P4 2.4C GHz@3.42GHz with stock HSF 1.55v
Asus P4P800 Deluxe

Check your facts, they where not in the same price segment. The P2.4 was released at $180 after the 2500+ was released. As for the GHZ thing, You should realize that GHZ means nothing, any benchmark from the day that you read will quickly show you that the Athlon XP vastly outperformed the P4 clock for clock. (Or do you think that your Core2 at 2.4 Ghz is slower then your P4 at 3.42 Ghz?)
 

Schmide

Diamond Member
Mar 7, 2002
5,788
1,092
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Originally posted by: Idontcare
Defendant: Uhhh, there were no illegal activities (as far as you know), so what would I be documenting exactly? We destroyed all those emails anyways. Other parties involved should of done the same. Dumbasses!

Fixed pursuant to discovery in the Delaware case.

 

Cogman

Lifer
Sep 19, 2000
10,286
147
106
Originally posted by: Phynaz
AMD is pricing their products at what they think they can sell them at, not at what they are worth.

What you can sell something at is what it's worth.

I stopped reading after that.

Not in the sense that you mean. You seem to think that price and performance are related. AMDs products where better then intels, there are/were litterally 100's of reviews that pointed to that at the time. They didn't sell them at Intels prices because people wouldn't buy them at that price.

AMD would have lost a heck of a lot more if they priced them similarly with intel, there's no "They got what they deserved." about it.
 

lopri

Elite Member
Jul 27, 2002
13,327
708
126
Originally posted by: Idontcare
Originally posted by: lopri
Originally posted by: Idontcare
Basically Intel is saying the EU stopped their investigative duties upon getting testimony from that guy...and went no farther to corroborate that guy's claims regarding his employer, like actually asking the people who were in the room during the meetings, etc.
Umm.. I doubt that's what Intel would be saying. lol. That'd be like saying Intel wants to be fined more than they've already gotten.

I don't follow how you get to your statement from mine.
What I meant is that it is unlikely the accused would ask for more proof of their wrongdoings (if any). More investigation often leads to more charges pressed. Intel will likely attack the validity of proof (facts) or the connection between it and the allegation (logic), or both.

Edit: Or do you mean that the people who were in the meetings would have provided evidence favorable to Intel? That'd make sense, though still not very relevant unless that evidence explains a major culpability. For example, if you get caught drunk-driving you get a ticket. It doesn't matter whether you drank because of your wife or your boss. But if your boss threatened to fire you over a drink, then that'd be a reasonably mitigating factor.
 

imported_Lothar

Diamond Member
Aug 10, 2006
4,559
1
0
Originally posted by: Cogman
Originally posted by: Lothar
P4 2.4C was the Barton 2500+ competitor.
Same price segment, performed better and overclocked better.
I know because I own both rigs.

Athlon XP 2500+ Barton @ 2.2GHz
Asus A7N8X Deluxe NF2 Ultra 400

Intel P4 2.4C GHz@3.42GHz with stock HSF 1.55v
Asus P4P800 Deluxe

Check your facts, they where not in the same price segment. The P2.4 was released at $180 after the 2500+ was released. As for the GHZ thing, You should realize that GHZ means nothing, any benchmark from the day that you read will quickly show you that the Athlon XP vastly outperformed the P4 clock for clock. (Or do you think that your Core2 at 2.4 Ghz is slower then your P4 at 3.42 Ghz?)

Barton was released Feb 10th, 2003
Northwood P4C was realeased Apr 14th, 2003.
Do you really consider 2 months to be significant?

Clock for clock, GHz per GHz, performance per transistor, I don't care about such useless stupid measurements.
If a chip gives me a better performance than the competitor at a reasonable temperature(no flaming Prescott's), that's all I care about.

Whether the chip achieves that by performing at 10GHz while their competitor performs at 1GHz is irrelevant.

To say that AMD held the crown during the P4 era is a little disingenuous at best.
They held the crown during the crippled Williamette chips, became on equal footing with the Northwood 533MHz chips, and lost it with the 800MHz Northwood chips.

*EDIT*
Where did I say I had a Core2? I've never had one. :confused:
Congratulations on your futile attempt to lecture me on clock speeds.
Too bad it failed.
 

drizek

Golden Member
Jul 7, 2005
1,410
0
71
That still doesn't change the fact that the Barton was still far better than the P4 at gaming and many other tasks, while costing half as much. That a7n8x you have was an awesome board too, with no real equivalent on the intel side, particularly if you wanted integrated graphics.
 

Cogman

Lifer
Sep 19, 2000
10,286
147
106
Originally posted by: Lothar
Originally posted by: Cogman
Originally posted by: Lothar
P4 2.4C was the Barton 2500+ competitor.
Same price segment, performed better and overclocked better.
I know because I own both rigs.

Athlon XP 2500+ Barton @ 2.2GHz
Asus A7N8X Deluxe NF2 Ultra 400

Intel P4 2.4C GHz@3.42GHz with stock HSF 1.55v
Asus P4P800 Deluxe

Check your facts, they where not in the same price segment. The P2.4 was released at $180 after the 2500+ was released. As for the GHZ thing, You should realize that GHZ means nothing, any benchmark from the day that you read will quickly show you that the Athlon XP vastly outperformed the P4 clock for clock. (Or do you think that your Core2 at 2.4 Ghz is slower then your P4 at 3.42 Ghz?)

Barton was released Feb 10th, 2003
Northwood P4C was realeased Apr 14th, 2003.
Do you really consider 2 months to be significant?

Clock for clock, GHz per GHz, performance per transistor, I don't care about such useless stupid measurements.
If a chip gives me a better performance than the competitor at a reasonable temperature(no flaming Prescott's), that's all I care about.

Whether the chip achieves that by performing at 10GHz while their competitor performs at 1GHz is irrelevant.

To say that AMD held the crown during the P4 era is a little disingenuous at best.
They held the crown during the crippled Williamette chips, became on equal footing with the Northwood 533MHz chips, and lost it with the 800MHz Northwood chips.

*EDIT*
Where did I say I had a Core2? I've never had one. :confused:
Congratulations on your futile attempt to lecture me on clock speeds.
Too bad it failed.

Why did I bring up clock speeds? Because as far as I can tell, thats the only metric that Northwoods actually beat the Athlons.

And to say they "Lost it" with Northwood chips is retarded at best. Again considering the fact that you are comparing a sub $100 CPU to a $180 CPU. In the same price range, AMD solidly beat Intel. Even at this highly diminished price they kept up fairly decently.

However, this whole discussion is besides the point. The fact of the matter is, AMD didn't sell a whole ton of chips, even when they where soundly beating intel in performance (Athlon 64 -> X2 era). The question on hand is, was intel practicing dirty tactics to stop AMD from succeeding. I tend to think yes.

Do these emails prove it? IDK, but I do think that the fact that it isn't just 1 email from one person talking about price fixing, (and not in a whistle blower "Im telling" fashion). I would think that that should stand for something in a court of law. Sure, we can't expect 1 disgruntled employees testimony to amount to a hill of beans. However, several separate unrelated people saying the same thing means something.
 

Viditor

Diamond Member
Oct 25, 1999
3,290
0
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Originally posted by: Phynaz
Originally posted by: BladeVenom
Originally posted by: Idontcare
Intel's response though is not something to be dismissed lightly.
I can't believe you believe and are arguing Intel's case. Besides it being obvious to most enthusiasts, Intel had been found guilty by the EU, Japan, and Korea.

In all the locations you just mentioned, to be found "guilty" of something requires a court verdict, none of which has been issued against Intel.

In Japan and Korea, Intel entered a plea of what amounts to Nolo Contendere...this means No Contention. In US Law (and all foriegn law that I am aware of) it is considered a plea of Guilty. The difference is that you don't have to explain yourself...
 

Viditor

Diamond Member
Oct 25, 1999
3,290
0
0
Originally posted by: Idontcare
Originally posted by: Viditor
Deliberately refusing to put things in writing is the sign that Intel knew what it was doing was wrong. And it's a lot easier for me to believe many people all telling the same story than for me to believe the one company insisting it broke no laws and it's all misinterpretation.

Sounds like a recipe ripe with opportunity for false accusation and prosecution.

Prosecutor: Why didn't you document your illegal activities!?

Defendant: Uhhh, there were no illegal activities, so what would I be documenting exactly?

Prosecutor: Riiiiight, likely excuse, your honor clearly the defendant is guilty, and now they are just willfully obstructing this investigation by not agreeing to say they are guilty so we can wrap this up before lunch.

You forgot a line...

Prosecutor: So if there was no illegal activity, why do all of your OEM partners swear under penalty of perjury that there was?

Originally posted by: Cogman
lol, so you are basically saying that the lawyers got it wrong because they didn't go to the HP CEO and say "Hey, did you break the law?"

What do you think the negotiations guys are going to say? "Why yes, we decided to price-fix with intel. It sounded like a great idea!"

If you setup your courts to require less than substantial evidence from the actual people you claim broke the law then what exactly is the basis for prosecution in your courts? Hearsay by someone who wore a badge issued by the same employer and took home a paycheck from them?

Justice isn't supposed to be "catch/prosecute all bad guys at any cost"...there are safeguards in the process to reduce the false prosecution rate.

I'm not here to defend Intel, I am merely engaging this thread to voice my concerns over the possibility of certain aspects of this Intel case setting precedent that really goes on to mean things that are kinda ludicrous if/when they get applied to the next unlucky business owner who has some arrogant and disgruntled employees deciding to boast of their employer's illegal going ons.

This isn't the first time it has happened, but usually those kinds of "easy to see thru" situations get stamped out well before the process gets to the point that a $1.5B fee is levied. What concerns me is that folks seem to want this kind of relaxed evidence requirements to be applied in this case without considering the ramifications of the court precedent it would set.

I for one do not want to get fined because I failed to document activity that actually never occurred in the first place but I am required to prove otherwise or else pay the fine. That is wonky on my mind to even write, let alone contemplate.

A fair and understandable point (and one with which I agree!)...but remember that the e-mails mentioned are only a taste and not the majority of evidence. Don't forget the 3,900 depositions they have in support of these activities...
 

Viditor

Diamond Member
Oct 25, 1999
3,290
0
0
Originally posted by: Phynaz
Originally posted by: GaiaHunter
Originally posted by: Phynaz
High performance and low price don't go together. If their products had been high performance then they would have been high priced.

What doesn't go together is how higher performance at lower or same price doesn't sell more than lower performance at same or higher price.

Or are you saying that the Athlon64 and the X2s weren't higher performance than the P4 and PD?

Some of the Athlons were faster than P4's, some weren't.

When the X2's were beating the the PD in performance, they were selling for a lot more money than a PD, and AMD couldn't produce enough of them to meet demand.

Not until the "Intel Inside" program was scrapped they weren't...that was the trigger, not the performance.
And they did meet demand, they just guessed wrong on what chips to produce and were (wisely) keeping very low inventories.
 

Zstream

Diamond Member
Oct 24, 2005
3,395
277
136
Originally posted by: Idontcare
Originally posted by: BladeVenom
Originally posted by: Idontcare
Intel's response though is not something to be dismissed lightly.
I can't believe you believe and are arguing Intel's case.

I thought I had gone to great lengths to be quite explicit in my reasoning for discussing the merits of Intel's argument.

Originally posted by: Idontcare
Originally posted by: Viditor
Deliberately refusing to put things in writing is the sign that Intel knew what it was doing was wrong. And it's a lot easier for me to believe many people all telling the same story than for me to believe the one company insisting it broke no laws and it's all misinterpretation.

Sounds like a recipe ripe with opportunity for false accusation and prosecution.

Prosecutor: Why didn't you document your illegal activities!?

Defendant: Uhhh, there were no illegal activities, so what would I be documenting exactly?

Prosecutor: Riiiiight, likely excuse, your honor clearly the defendant is guilty, and now they are just willfully obstructing this investigation by not agreeing to say they are guilty so we can wrap this up before lunch.

Originally posted by: Cogman
lol, so you are basically saying that the lawyers got it wrong because they didn't go to the HP CEO and say "Hey, did you break the law?"

What do you think the negotiations guys are going to say? "Why yes, we decided to price-fix with intel. It sounded like a great idea!"

So when a major corporations state that Intel was in error, it is a mistake?

When Intel deletes emails regarding the subject matter, it is not suspect?


 

Idontcare

Elite Member
Oct 10, 1999
21,110
64
91
Originally posted by: Viditor
A fair and understandable point (and one with which I agree!)...but remember that the e-mails mentioned are only a taste and not the majority of evidence. Don't forget the 3,900 depositions they have in support of these activities...

Thank you for understanding my point :thumbsup: Which wasn't about defending Intel or claiming Intel is the misunderstood victim here, I am merely saying this one aspect of the case seems flimsy to me and I really hope there is something more substantial behind the EU's decision other than emails (or lack thereof) from second-hand subordinates twittering away that they overheard Bob at the cafeteria tell Susy what was said in some meeting.

Originally posted by: Zstream
So when a major corporations state that Intel was in error, it is a mistake?

I don't follow.

Originally posted by: Zstream
When Intel deletes emails regarding the subject matter, it is not suspect?

Suspect? Yes they are suspect. Does it prove guilt of the alleged crime? Not at all.

For all we know they deleted emails that were proof that far more heinous crimes had been committed.

But one should want this to be based on proof, not heresay.

My point is simple, if Intel was having serious ethical issues then I doubt it was isolate to this one particular business program. So if they can't get substantial proof of illegal activities along this theme then I'd much rather they keep looking for other things to take them down over rather than turn the whole process into a mockery of justice because the next guy isn't going to be so lucky once precedent is set.

You know the story of how they got Al Capone, right? They didn't resort to undermining the sanctity of the justice system to nail him just because he was too smart to write anything down, they just knew if they kept working the guy that eventually he'd trip up somewhere and they'd nail him on whatever it was he tripped up on.
 

MODEL3

Senior member
Jul 22, 2009
528
0
0
I am more interested to read the emails between the local intel offices (office per country in the european region) and the local Intel distributors and their big customers (they should be less carefull than in HP/Lenovo/Dell case...)
 

imported_Lothar

Diamond Member
Aug 10, 2006
4,559
1
0
Originally posted by: drizek
That still doesn't change the fact that the Barton was still far better than the P4 at gaming and many other tasks, while costing half as much. That a7n8x you have was an awesome board too, with no real equivalent on the intel side, particularly if you wanted integrated graphics.

Again with the blanket statements.
Which Barton and P4 are you comparing/talking about here?
Are we still comparing the Barton 2500+ to the P4 2.4C? If so, we must not be looking at the same benchmarks or prices.

The P4P800 Deluxe was the best Intel 800MHz board, hands down.
The Abit IS7 was a close second.
No need to waste money on a Canterwood chipset when you can get a Springdale chipset with PAT technology enabled.
Ahhh...the days of paying $130 for a motherboard and getting top of the line features and performance.
http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.aspx?i=1831

FYI, I don't care about integrated graphics.
 

imported_Lothar

Diamond Member
Aug 10, 2006
4,559
1
0
Originally posted by: Cogman
Originally posted by: Lothar
Originally posted by: Cogman
Originally posted by: Lothar
P4 2.4C was the Barton 2500+ competitor.
Same price segment, performed better and overclocked better.
I know because I own both rigs.

Athlon XP 2500+ Barton @ 2.2GHz
Asus A7N8X Deluxe NF2 Ultra 400

Intel P4 2.4C GHz@3.42GHz with stock HSF 1.55v
Asus P4P800 Deluxe

Check your facts, they where not in the same price segment. The P2.4 was released at $180 after the 2500+ was released. As for the GHZ thing, You should realize that GHZ means nothing, any benchmark from the day that you read will quickly show you that the Athlon XP vastly outperformed the P4 clock for clock. (Or do you think that your Core2 at 2.4 Ghz is slower then your P4 at 3.42 Ghz?)

Barton was released Feb 10th, 2003
Northwood P4C was realeased Apr 14th, 2003.
Do you really consider 2 months to be significant?

Clock for clock, GHz per GHz, performance per transistor, I don't care about such useless stupid measurements.
If a chip gives me a better performance than the competitor at a reasonable temperature(no flaming Prescott's), that's all I care about.

Whether the chip achieves that by performing at 10GHz while their competitor performs at 1GHz is irrelevant.

To say that AMD held the crown during the P4 era is a little disingenuous at best.
They held the crown during the crippled Williamette chips, became on equal footing with the Northwood 533MHz chips, and lost it with the 800MHz Northwood chips.

*EDIT*
Where did I say I had a Core2? I've never had one. :confused:
Congratulations on your futile attempt to lecture me on clock speeds.
Too bad it failed.

Why did I bring up clock speeds? Because as far as I can tell, thats the only metric that Northwoods actually beat the Athlons.

And to say they "Lost it" with Northwood chips is retarded at best. Again considering the fact that you are comparing a sub $100 CPU to a $180 CPU. In the same price range, AMD solidly beat Intel. Even at this highly diminished price they kept up fairly decently.

However, this whole discussion is besides the point. The fact of the matter is, AMD didn't sell a whole ton of chips, even when they where soundly beating intel in performance (Athlon 64 -> X2 era). The question on hand is, was intel practicing dirty tactics to stop AMD from succeeding. I tend to think yes.

Do these emails prove it? IDK, but I do think that the fact that it isn't just 1 email from one person talking about price fixing, (and not in a whistle blower "Im telling" fashion). I would think that that should stand for something in a court of law. Sure, we can't expect 1 disgruntled employees testimony to amount to a hill of beans. However, several separate unrelated people saying the same thing means something.

Many people said AMD had a problem keeping up with demand...
What good is it to have an excellent processor and not make enough of it, or if they were "wisely" keeping very low inventory levels as Viditor said a few posts up?

Before Dresden, didn't AMD only have 2-3 fabs?
It's kind of hard to keep up with behemoth Intel who has dozens of fabs producing chips.

As to this EU judgment, I'm not sure about but the EU has certainly shown to be nothing but a politically motivated circus from past rulings against Microsoft.
It's the US case I'm paying attention to.

Does anyone have a link to AMD vs Intel market share before A64 was released vs right before Conroe was released?
 

Schmide

Diamond Member
Mar 7, 2002
5,788
1,092
126
Originally posted by: Idontcare
My point is simple, if Intel was having serious ethical issues then I doubt it was isolate to this one particular business program. So if they can't get substantial proof of illegal activities along this theme then I'd much rather they keep looking for other things to take them down over rather than turn the whole process into a mockery of justice because the next guy isn't going to be so lucky once precedent is set.

Duh - there were plenty of serious ethical issues with Intel in the past.

A very good example of strong arm tactics was Intergraph. Intergraph owned some IP that Intel wanted because they knew that the Itanium violated this. When Intergraph refused to just hand over the IP, Intel stopped validating Intergraph's motherboards for their chips and tried to force them out of business. Intergraph sued and Intel settled for a large sum.

Read up on the original x86 license battle with AMD as well.

If they were to judge Intel on past ethical issues, they would of been way way more guilty.



 

drizek

Golden Member
Jul 7, 2005
1,410
0
71
Again with the blanket statements.
Which Barton and P4 are you comparing/talking about here?
Are we still comparing the Barton 2500+ to the P4 2.4C? If so, we must not be looking at the same benchmarks or prices.

It doesn't matter. compare any two competing Bartons/P4s and the Barton will come up ahead in games, consistently and by a reasonable margin.

As for prices, again, the 2500 was $100 and the 2.4C was $200. You can calculate street prices or whatever, but the Intel was still about twice as much.
 

Viditor

Diamond Member
Oct 25, 1999
3,290
0
0
Originally posted by: Idontcare
Originally posted by: Viditor
A fair and understandable point (and one with which I agree!)...but remember that the e-mails mentioned are only a taste and not the majority of evidence. Don't forget the 3,900 depositions they have in support of these activities...

Thank you for understanding my point :thumbsup: Which wasn't about defending Intel or claiming Intel is the misunderstood victim here, I am merely saying this one aspect of the case seems flimsy to me and I really hope there is something more substantial behind the EU's decision other than emails (or lack thereof) from second-hand subordinates twittering away that they overheard Bob at the cafeteria tell Susy what was said in some meeting.

I think I know your posting well enough to make that assumption in advance, mate. :)
However, I really think you should re-read those e-mails...my impression is that you are reading them only in light of Intel's response, and IMHO that response was meant to do just that.
These people aren't twittering away about what they heard or saw, they are stating things directly...

For instance:
"PLEASE DO NOT? communicate to the regions, your team members or AMD that we are constrained to 5 percent AMD by pursuing the Intel agreement"

That is a directive from the top echelons of a 3rd party (OEM) to all employees about an illegal deal with Intel...there really isn't much wiggle room there.

 

Idontcare

Elite Member
Oct 10, 1999
21,110
64
91
Originally posted by: Viditor
Originally posted by: Idontcare
Originally posted by: Viditor
A fair and understandable point (and one with which I agree!)...but remember that the e-mails mentioned are only a taste and not the majority of evidence. Don't forget the 3,900 depositions they have in support of these activities...

Thank you for understanding my point :thumbsup: Which wasn't about defending Intel or claiming Intel is the misunderstood victim here, I am merely saying this one aspect of the case seems flimsy to me and I really hope there is something more substantial behind the EU's decision other than emails (or lack thereof) from second-hand subordinates twittering away that they overheard Bob at the cafeteria tell Susy what was said in some meeting.

I think I know your posting well enough to make that assumption in advance, mate. :)
However, I really think you should re-read those e-mails...my impression is that you are reading them only in light of Intel's response, and IMHO that response was meant to do just that.
These people aren't twittering away about what they heard or saw, they are stating things directly...

For instance:
"PLEASE DO NOT? communicate to the regions, your team members or AMD that we are constrained to 5 percent AMD by pursuing the Intel agreement"

That is a directive from the top echelons of a 3rd party (OEM) to all employees about an illegal deal with Intel...there really isn't much wiggle room there.

I totally agree the emails from the customer side are rather damning. But they aren't proof in and of themselves are they? They are hearsay, where is the Intel agreement itself that is referred to? Signed and dated by Intel execs, that state the 5% AMD constraint?

This isn't about whether or not I believe the guy who wrote the email, I am compelled to believe them considering how many of them there are, but where is the rest of the proof? Circumstantial evidence yes, but where is the contract?

We may never see it

What does concern me is that all of these activities, if true albeit unprovable, fell under Sean Maloney's jurisdiction within Intel at the time they allegedly occurred. This is the guy who is going to lead Intel when Otellini steps down. IMO if Intel was ever going to trip up again like they did under Barrett it is going to be with a sales and marketing guy at the helm.

This could be a big favor to AMD, an opportunity for their technologist CEO (Meyer) to outmaneuver the guy who has spent his life worried about gross margins and product segmentation plus the question of whether his method of rising to power within Intel was accomplished by questionable means. (meaning his ability to repeat/continue such performance is questionable once placed in an environment where he cannot repeat past tactics given the anti-trust spotlight that exists now)

I'm just stringing together the ifs and the supposes...I hope folks here are cerebral enough to know the difference between contemplating/openly discussing the merits of both sides of the situation with the EU and Intel versus dissecting what an individual believes or feels at the personal level.
 

Idontcare

Elite Member
Oct 10, 1999
21,110
64
91
Originally posted by: Schmide
Originally posted by: Idontcare
My point is simple, if Intel was having serious ethical issues then I doubt it was isolate to this one particular business program. So if they can't get substantial proof of illegal activities along this theme then I'd much rather they keep looking for other things to take them down over rather than turn the whole process into a mockery of justice because the next guy isn't going to be so lucky once precedent is set.

Duh - there were plenty of serious ethical issues with Intel in the past.

A very good example of strong arm tactics was Intergraph. Intergraph owned some IP that Intel wanted because they knew that the Itanium violated this. When Intergraph refused to just hand over the IP, Intel stopped validating Intergraph's motherboards for their chips and tried to force them out of business. Intergraph sued and Intel settled for a large sum.

Read up on the original x86 license battle with AMD as well.

If they were to judge Intel on past ethical issues, they would of been way way more guilty.

What's with the "duh" comment?