A savage new twist to the personal computer price-performance ratchet is in prospect after Advanced Micro Devices Inc announced yesterday that it will plunge straight into the 80486 market with a family of devices using Intel Corp microcode rather than wait until its own clean version of the chip is ready in June. It will announce specific Am486 products, pricing and availability on Thursday. The decision follows a court ruling late on Friday in which Judge William Ingram ordered a retrial of the interminable lawsuit brought by Intel against the Sunnyvale chipmaker over the latter’s alleged non-performance under their second source and products development agreement. The suit could still go against Advanced Micro, but it is now free from the injunction barring it from shipping 80486 and later generation chips that include Intel proprietary microcode – although Intel is free to seek a new injunction prior to the retrial. Intel Corp shares were down sharply prior to the New York opening as investors reacted to the news: opening at $99, they carried on down to $95.75, off $14.25 from the $110 at the close on Friday. Advanced Micro shares were up $3.125 or 13.5%, at $27.375. Intel said the decision overturning the jury verdict in its favour will have little impact on the 80486 market. The judge ordered the new trial on the grounds that Intel witheld key documents that could have influenced the jury’s findings on the meaning of the license agreement. The failure to produce them substantially interfered with AMD’s discovery and trial presentation, said Ingram in a 12-page decision. Moreover the non-production prevented AMD from fairly presenting its defence. The judge granted AMD a new trial based on the fact that they claimed they didn’t see a Business Wire report when we announced that we sued them, Intel general counsel Tom Dunlap told Reuters.
