Intel Will Pay Rival Chipmaker AMD $1.25 Billion to Settle All Legal Disputes

[Phynaz]

That's one big important point I wish to clarify here. I am convinced the settlement with AMD will not stop other non-AMD-started lawsuits, such as that of the NY AG. Can anyone more versed in the law declare clearly that Cuomo's lawsuit isn't going to vanish despite the Intel-AMD settlement?

Keep in mind that Cuomo filed in Delaware, because he wanted the same jurisdiction as the AMD lawsuit. It would make it much easier to use any evidence and verdict that came out of the AMD lawsuit.

Now that the AMD lawsuit is gone, his case may be significantly weakened.

 

[heyheybooboo]

~~snip~~

This hardly changes the playing field, the rate of change in the gap between Intel and AMD remains unaffected by this settlement and it is the rate of change in the gap that is suffocating AMD slowly but surely.
~~

I think the devil is in the details.

If Intel/AMD become 'gentile' partners in AVX/XOP it benefits AMD and the consumer, and levels the playing field somewhat. I don't believe AMD is afraid to compete with Intel --- as long as it is on level terms.

As I understand the way the 'instructions' went --- Intel was under no obligation to share an instruction set until a physical chip was released to market. That seems like a very odd arrangement to me - one which effectively kept AMD 18 months or more behind Intel.

That's my understanding of it --- I could have it all wrong, though.

And, yes --- I'm surprised by the amount and the timing. I though it would have been Q1-10 in the months directly before the trial.

I guess they wanted to clear things up for the holidays ---

 

[jvroig]

Keep in mind that Cuomo filed in Delaware, because he wanted the same jurisdiction as the AMD lawsuit. It would make it much easier to use any evidence and verdict that came out of the AMD lawsuit. Now that the AMD lawsuit is gone, his case may be significantly weakened.

I am not a lawyer and am not from the US so I have absolutely zero clue about how US states conduct their legal matters, so any input about the viability or stability of the remaining suits against Intel is very much appreciated.

 

[Phynaz]

Intel made $2b PROFIT (not revenue) last QUARTER (not year). $1.25b is an insult and AMD is stupid to accept that (assuming everything in thread so far is true)

You are assuming two things:

1) AMD would have won ALL of the actions (it would do them no good to win a civil suit if GF couldn't make them chips).

2) AMD could afford years of continued litigation

AMD did not make these assumptions.

 

[postmortemIA]

i think they got out easy.. if the shady practices were not there, AMD would have made only 1.25B more for all these years??

AMD hasn't had profitable quarter in years.

Even if they made $125 mil per year, it would take them 10 yrs to get $1.25bil

 

[Markfw]

Looks like the stock market has changed again. AMD is up 21.8% and intel is down 0.10%

 

[aigomorla]

dude i see more reasons now why intel will delay products to mature the fab processes even more... were are now offically screwed on new tech

 

[OCGuy]

So are people thinking that AMD will suddenly start making chips that people actually want to buy?

They are down ~ 2 years, and nothing I see on the horizon is going to change that.

 

[SlowSpyder]

So are people thinking that AMD will suddenly start making chips that people actually want to buy?

They are down ~ 2 years, and nothing I see on the horizon is going to change that.

They were also quite behind when they launched the Radeon 2900. Today they arguably are the technology leader in the GPU arena. Also, I don't see why you think that the chips they make aren't desired. While the PhII is no i7 killer, it's no slouch either. AMD may from here on out always play second fiddle to Intel, that doesn't mean that their future products won't be desirable for 99% of users.

Considering how big some of their loses were over the last year or two, I'm kind of suprised that they were ok with this 'small' of an amount of money. Maybe using Global Foundries as a fab without Intel objecting was the bigger goal for AMD than the money. If AMD can sell it's GF stock now, since Intel won't object to them using differentf fabs, I wonder if Nvidia will reconsider using GF as well?

 

[KingstonU]

I just needed to post in this thread during this historical moment. For me personally I hope this brings Bulldozer to me before 2H 2011.

 

[Martimus]

I have to admit, that I expected much more. I figured the settlement would be in the $3B-$5B range. But even so, sometimes it is better to take a smaller settlement just for the peace of mind that knowing where you stand gives you. This allows AMD to make plans based on far more "knowns" than what they had before the settlement. I know this much from personal experience, so I can't blame them for going down this road.

 

[the kernel]

Good news for AMD certainly as this will allow them to raise quite a bit of capital and pay off the worst of their debt (not all debt is created equal and some of their debt was baselined at a worse credit rating) not just because of the settlement but also because of the money they will raise from selling off their GF interests.

HOWEVER, there are still a few big challenges ahead of AMD...

1) GF is now going to be forced into charging AMD rates that will have a big impact on their design strategies (they need to make a profit too). In order to keep up with Intel, AMD has been throwing a lot of transistors at the problem with more cores and state of the art (for the industry anyway) process technology in this arms race. This is going to start hitting their bottom line and they are going to have to be more frugal with their die sizes and process transitions.

2) Although AMD will be getting rid of a lot of debt because of this, they will also be getting rid of a lot of hard infrastructure. Before much of AMD's value was based on the value of their fabs, now their value is going to be judged solely based on their IP. This is a tough position to be in because a bad design can have a cascade effect on the value of their business. It also makes getting loans a much trickier business as they don't have any collateral besides the perceived value of their IP.

3) AMD will need to start making a profit soon and not just breaking even.

 

[richierich1212]

So are people thinking that AMD will suddenly start making chips that people actually want to buy?

lol, with all the latest laptop sales that have been going on, I've noticed that a lot of them include AMD processors. Doesn't look like an issue to me, I just want AMD's mobile platform to be even better than today's offerings.

 

[Phynaz]

Does anybody know if the patent licensing is just CPU IP, or does it cover process technology also?

 

[Cookie Monster]

From our own AT

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=3675

Out of this settlement come four major things for AMD:

1. $1.25 billion in cold, hard cash.
2. Intel will stop doing things that they and AMD agree they shouldn’t be doing.
3. The right to not have to produce x86 CPUs in-house. AMD can go fabless.
4. The right to have their x86 processors fabricated anywhere of AMD’s choosing.

Meanwhile, here’s what Intel gets:

1. AMD is dropping all private suits against Intel
2. AMD will retract all regulatory complaints with government regulators

 

[the kernel]

lol, with all the latest laptop sales that have been going on, I've noticed that a lot of them include AMD processors. Doesn't look like an issue to me, I just want AMD's mobile platform to be even better than today's offerings.

Tigris is still not especially competitive with Intel and the market share numbers reflect this--AMD is having their asses handed to them in the laptop market (which incidentally is still growing in market size relative to desktops). Products like Arrandale are only going to increase the size of this gulf.

This is not to say that AMD cannot make a decent laptop platform if they put their minds to it, but their product strategy has always shown that they spend a lot more focus on desktop and server. I've never really understood this strategy given that the laptop space is both higher growth AND high margin than the desktop space (server is a different animal but there's a distinct cap on how large that market is going to get).

 

[TuxDave]

this does mean intel is admitting to its shady practices..

Nope it doesn't. It just means that to Intel, $1.25B is worth the cost to get rid of all the lawsuits and settling the cross patent license.

It's my opinion when there are fuzzy lines in law, an innocent person can go to jail. (at least that's what I took away from watching episodes of Boston Legal).

 

[aigomorla]

I just needed to post in this thread during this historical moment. For me personally I hope this brings Bulldozer to me before 2H 2011.

2H 2011 intel will slaughter bulldozer.. :\
The maps i saw, which i know intel WONT follow, had some pretty awesome tech.
(i think this payout is gonna hold back another delay, and there gonna blame it on FAB process.)

AMD really killed it for me on there PHII launch.

They completely Botched it, and PHII was majorly overhyped.
I sense the same thing going on in bulldozer.

For me now, its AMD show your cards.. or i'll call your bluff...

 

[VirtualLarry]

One important question that I had that hasn't been answered - is AMD's x86 license (the NEW license) considered to be transferrable, in case some other company (perhaps NVidia?) buys out AMD?

That might have been a worthwhile provision to put into the agreement. It makes AMD all that more valuable to be acquired. If it's not transferrable, that just means a long, slow death, or perhaps a lingering limbo existance, for AMD.

 

[Phynaz]

Intel's 8-K filing is here.

Reading now.

 

[Gikaseixas]

2H 2011 intel will slaughter bulldozer.. :\
The maps i saw, which i know intel WONT follow, had some pretty awesome tech.
(i think this payout is gonna hold back another delay, and there gonna blame it on FAB process.)

AMD really killed it for me on there PHII launch.

They completely Botched it, and PHII was majorly overhyped.
I sense the same thing going on in bulldozer.

For me now, its AMD show your cards.. or i'll call your bluff...

Phenon II is a decent cpu, you are wrong. Also, don't be so quick to say Intel will slaughter them in two years time. A lot can change in that period. Think GPU.

You always say things like these, makes you feel good i guess. Competition is good so try to believe that AMD can turn things around.

 

[OCGuy]

Phenon II is a decent cpu, you are wrong. Also, don't be so quick to say Intel will slaughter them in two years time. A lot can change in that period. Think GPU.

You always say things like these, makes you feel good i guess. Competition is good so try to believe that AMD can turn things around.

GPU means nothing. nV is late on a release that will more than likely still top AMDs current gen. I dont know why people keep bringing that up.

In the CPU world, we see the roadmaps years in advance. We have projected release dates and estimated dates for moving to smaller nodes.

 

[GlacierFreeze]

One important question that I had that hasn't been answered - is AMD's x86 license (the NEW license) considered to be transferrable, in case some other company (perhaps NVidia?) buys out AMD?

NVidia wouldn't buy AMD. It might create a monopoly on the video card industry.

 

[aigomorla]

Phenon II is a decent cpu, you are wrong. Also, don't be so quick to say Intel will slaughter them in two years time. A lot can change in that period. Think GPU.

You always say things like these, makes you feel good i guess. Competition is good so try to believe that AMD can turn things around.

Dude.. the PHII @ launch was full of Bugs.

Its a decient cpu now... but when it launched on the first revision off the sorry 780G chipset it failed horribly.

And YES i had a OG PHII, it was CRAP.

After the 790G, + a few more stepping upgrades, the PHII is now what it is.

U cant say the PHII today is the same as the one that was first out.

If AMD was advancing... why is the gap between AMD vs Intel getting LARGER?
I dont see AMD closing that gap.

And whats wrong with me telling AMD to put out or shut up?
I ALWAYS telll intel that... Dayam delays...

Intel delays are even more BS.
Because Intel at least has a fully working chip, but there just too cheap to release it on the market.
And they blame it on BS reasons.. like not enough tweeks in FAB process... or some other things they can push launch off for.

Im not nice to any vendor period.

 

[Gikaseixas]

GPU means nothing. nV is late on a release that will more than likely still top AMDs current gen. I dont know why people keep bringing that up.

In the CPU world, we see the roadmaps years in advance. We have projected release dates and estimated dates for moving to smaller nodes.

Will it? That remains to be seen. I believe it will but it's not certain is it?

Oh i know that but i just made an analogy of a very similar scenario, one that could happen. It's not impossible...