AMD may have to stop making x86 CPUs tomorrow | Hacker News Reader

AMD may have to stop making x86 CPUs tomorrow

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34 pointsazharcs9 comments

Perhaps we'll get a big shift towards more ARM processors soon? "Performance per watt" was big in Jobs' pitch of the move from Power PC to Intel Core.

The 8086 was released in 1978, and 31-year-old bytecode still runs on Intel's newest x86 chips. The only thing that's stayed more constant for 3 decades is the rotational frequency of disk platters.

Or SPARC!

After losing $1.45 billion due to illegal operations in Europe, I'm sure kicking AMD out the x86 market won't warm them to the anti-trust commission.

Keep in mind AMD was the one lobbying worldwide for anti-trust actions against Intel (even as their market share was growing). Setting up your competition to get slapped with a record-setting fine on dubious non-sworn evidence is playing pretty dirty. I suspect Intel is looking for ways to return the favor.

It's only dirty if Intel isn't guilty but AMD is somehow influencing the ruling against Intels favor. Assuming AMD is indeed doing that, it's still only the corporate version of reporting a crime to the police.

We live in a messy world where regulators often have wide discretion and politically-driven motivations. Guilt or innocence in a matter like this is on a completely different plane from guilt or innocence in a murder trial. Even if we had perfect information about the past, reasonable people could debate endlessly about whether the sum of actions constituted "anti-competitive" behavior (which is banned) rather than just simple competition (which is encouraged, as opposed to, say, collusion).

Since "anti-trust" is bad law, anyone who files complaints about it is "dirty".

Regardless of AMD's intentions in this case or the financial implications of this decision. Intel with either look like a petulant corporation or worse, an organisation that actively strong arms its competition...well at least to any anti-trust commissions any way.

Perhaps. I'm not willing to assume that Intel is stupid though. It's conceivable that they are playing a strong card here. Intel could be in the right on this dispute; AMD could be clearly in breach, but Intel simply didn't want to pursue it until it was clear to them that the European Commission was going to move against the company anyway.

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