EU regulators raid Intel offices

ANTITRUST regulators in Europe have raided the offices of processor giant Intel and several computer retails as part of an investigation of restrictive trade practices.

In a prepared statement, the European Commission said its officials had carried out “unannounced inspections at the premises of a manufacturer of central processing units (CPUs) and a number of personal computer retailers.

Intel has since confirmed that it is the manufacturer whose offices were raided. The German consumer electronics retailer Media Markt and Britains DSG are also understood to have been raided as part of the investigation.

“The Commission has reason to believe that the companies concerned may have violated EC Treaty rules on restrictive business practices (Article 81) and/or abuse of a dominant market position,” the Commission said in a statement.

The investigation and the premises’ raids are thought to be the first stage of a response to complaints to the EC about Intel market behaviour from rival Advanced Micro Devices.

Intel is already the subject of formal EU charges of monopoly abuse of market power, for allegedly customer rebates at below cost and for allegedly bullying customers into staying away from AMD.

Intel has said it would cooperate with the regulatory authorities.

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NY investigates Intel sales practice

NEW York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has launched an instigation of chip-maker Intel amid concerns the company had violated anti-trust laws by coercing customers to exclude its rival Advanced Micro Devices (AMD).

Cuomo served Intel with a wide-ranging subpoena seeking documents and information on the company and its relationship with some customers.

“Our investigation is focused on determining whether Intel has improperly used monopoly power to exclude competitors or stifle innovation,” Mr Cuomo said. “We will also look at whether Intel abused its power to remove competitive threats or harm competition in violation of New York and federal antitrust laws.”

Similar antitrust allegations have been examined by authorities in Europe and Asia and resulted in formal actions, including a cease and desist order, against Intel.

The subpoena served on Intel seeks documents and information concerning Intel’s pricing practices and possible attempt to exclude competitors through its market domination. Specifically it seeks to find whether Intel penalised customers for making purchases from a competitor, or if it made improper payments to customers to keep them from buying a competitors product.

AMD’s executive vice-president for legal affairs Tom McCoy welcomed the investigation.

“New York State’s decision, based on its findings to date, to open a formal investigation of Intel’s anticompetitive business practices is good news for computer buyers in NY and throughout the United States,” Mr McCoy said.

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OLPC spin-off seeks US$75 laptop

THE former chief technology officer of the One Laptop Per Child project has set up a spin-off company that aims to produce a laptop for just US$75 (A$84).

Mary Lou Jepsen was the founding CTO of the OLPC project. She has set up a company called Pixel Qi, which is pursuing the $75 laptop, while also aiming to bring sunlight readable, low-cost and low-power screens into mainstream laptops, cellphones and digital cameras.

Pixel Qi is currently pursuing the $75 laptop, while also aiming to bring sunlight readable, low-cost and low-power screens into mainstream laptops, cellphones and digital cameras.

Spinning out from OLPC enables the development of a new machine beyond the XO (the OLPC framework), while leveraging a larger commercial market for new technologies, beyond just OLPC. Pixel Qi believes prices for next-generation hardware can be brought down by allowing multiple uses of the key technology advances.

Pixel Qi said it plans to sell OLPC its products at cost, while also selling the sub-systems and devices at a profit for commercial use.

“I believe that looking at computers in a new, holistic, systemic way, with a clean-sheet approach to computer design - rather than incrementally increasing the horsepower of the CPU - is critical to bringing computing and Internet access to more than the 1 billion affluent who now are its beneficiaries,” Ms Jepsen said on her web site.

“The key is a new generation of low-cost, low power, durable, networked computers, leveraging open-design principles,” she said.

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IBM lodges Asus patent complaint

IBM wants the US government to ban the imports of Taiwanese OEM manufacturing giant Asustek, claiming the company infringes IBM patents in a broad variety of its tech products.

Asustek, which is best known for manufacturing PCs, notebooks and other products on behalf of big brand companies, has in recent years established it own ASUS brand in a growing number of international markets.

IBM claims it has made “repeated attempts” to reach licensing agreements with Asustek and its subsidiary in the US, ASUS Computer International.

Big Blue has now filed a complaint with the US International Trade Commission outlining three specific breaches concerning patents covering power supply, automatic fan speed control, and computer clustering.

“The infringing Asustek computer products include notebook computers, so-called barebones computer systems, servers, routers and various computer components,” IBM said in a statement.

The US International Trade Commission is an independent federal agency that has the authority to ban the importation of products found to infringe the patents of US companies.

Asustek, which builds products on behalf of companies like Dell and Hewlett Packard, has denied the allegations.

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