FTC antitrust settlement with Intel

WASHINGTON, USA: The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has approved a settlement agreement with Intel Corp to resolve charges that the chipmaker unfairly used its market dominance to stifle competition.

The FTC filed a complaint against Intel in December at the urging of Advanced Micro Devices Inc and Nvidia Corp, who had argued that Intel's actions were putting them at a disadvantage.

Following are key provisions of the settlement between the FTC and Intel:

* Intel will be prohibited from conditioning benefits to computer makers such as Dell Inc, in exchange for their promise to buy chips only from Intel and to refuse to buy from its competitors. The prohibited benefits in question include price discounts, marketing funds and engineering support. Intel will also be prevented from retaliating against computer manufacturers that buy from rival chipmakers.

* For six years, Intel must maintain a computer interface that allows graphics chips from companies such as Nvidia to access its central processing units. The technology to allow that interface is called a PCI Express Bus.

* Intel must offer to extend its licensing agreement with Taiwan-based Via Technologies Inc for its x86 computer architecture for five years beyond the current agreement, which expires in 2013. The x86 architecture dominates the personal computer market.

* Intel will modify its intellectual property agreements with chipmakers AMD, Nvidia and Via so those companies have more freedom to consider mergers or joint ventures without the threat of being sued by Intel for patent infringement for one year.

Analysts said that could open the door for Nvidia to buy Via, and for AMD to further its hand-off of chip manufacturing to its spin-off company, Global Foundries.