Exhausted by the seven-year war between them, Intel Corp and Advanced Micro Devices Inc have decided that skimming their profits just to keep lawyers in clover is a mug’s game, and have settled all outstanding issues in an agreement that is being seen as something of a victory for Advanced Micro. It agreed to pay Intel $58m, but gets a perpetual licence to the microcode in Intel’s 80386 and 80486 microprocessors, lifting the cloud that has been hanging over the success of the Am486 parts. Advanced Micro agrees that it has no right to copy any other Intel microcode including the Pentium Processor, P6 microcode and 80486 in-circuit emulation microcode. The two will negotiate a new patent cross-licence agreement to succeed the one that runs out at the end of the year. Offsetting the $58m, Intel will pay about $18m awarded by the arbitrator for breach of contract and will not contest the rights granted Advanced Micro in the arbitration award. The latter gets the right to use foundries for Am486 products containing Intel microcode for up to 20% of its Am486 production, and Advanced Micro and its customers get a licence on Intel’s Crawford 338 patent, covering memory management. And to write a firm line under the past, the two agree not to initiate legal action against one another for any activity occurring prior to January 6 this year. Intel had been seeking damages estimated at more than $1,000m, but Advanced Micro had been seeking $2,200m in damages in its anti-trust counter-suit. The two companies said they have been in negotiations since October but the talks only came to light last week. The original dispute was triggered by an iAPX-86 second-source agreement Intel signed with Advanced Micro back in 1982 that went sour.
