Overview

On November 12, 2009 AMD and Intel Corporation announced a comprehensive settlement agreement to end all outstanding legal disputes between the companies, including antitrust and patent cross license disputes. In addition to a payment of $1.25B that Intel made to AMD, Intel agreed to abide by an important set of ground rules that continue in effect until November 11, 2019.  Intel also entered into a Consent Decree with the United States Federal Trade Commission in October of 2010 that continues in effect until October 29, 2020 that imposes further restrictions and requirements intended to foster competition in the x86 semiconductor market.  Key components of those agreements are summarized here:

Customers and Partners

With respect to customers and partners, Intel must not:*

  • Offer discounts, rebates or other financial or non-financial benefits or inducements to customers or third-party non-customers contingent upon:
    • locking out AMD to secure total Intel exclusivity,
    • delaying the purchase or use of AMD microprocessors,
    • limiting, delaying or constraining marketing, promotion, launch, advertising, production, distribution, sale or branding of any product containing AMD microprocessors (for third party non-customers, this prohibition also applies to purchase, sale, design and development of products containing AMD microprocessors),
    • abstaining from or delaying participation in AMD product launches, announcements, advertising, trade show exhibits or other promotional activities.
  • Withhold benefits or threaten retaliation against anyone for refusal to agree to any prohibited arrangement.
  • Intentionally include design/engineering elements in its products that artificially impair the performance of any AMD microprocessor.

*For complete terms of the obligations, including exceptions, see the public documents listed below.

Benchmarking Comparisons

When making performance comparisons or asserting performance under any benchmarks, Intel must disclose to each customer the limitations inherent to such comparisons and benchmarks by citing the following disclosure.

“Software and workloads used in performance tests may have been optimized for performance only on Intel microprocessors. Performance tests, such as SYSmark and MobileMark, are measured using specific computer systems, components, software, operations and functions. Any change to any of those factors may cause the results to vary. You should consult other information and performance tests to assist you in fully evaluating your contemplated purchase, including the performance of that product when combined with other products.”

When the form of the promotion does not physically allow room for this language, Intel must state:  “For more complete information about performance and benchmark results, visit www.intel.com/benchmarks,” and that website must contain the disclosure language. 

Public Tenders

With respect to public tenders, Intel may not encourage public procurement officials to draft specifications that exclude AMD microprocessors.

Intel Compiler Optimizations

With respect to Intel compilers, Intel must clearly and prominently disclose in all marketing, promotional and technical documentation:

  • optimizations to Intel compilers that do not equally benefit AMD processors, and
  • optimizations capable of running on AMD processors that are reserved only for Intel processors.

Reporting Violations

If organizations need more information or have concerns, help is available. Organizations may contact the local public agency responsible for open markets, or AMD.

Resources

Legal Documents