Glance: Intel, FTC antitrust settlement at a glance

Glance: Intel, FTC antitrust settlement

The antitrust settlement between Intel Corp. and the Federal Trade Commission requires that Intel change its business in several key ways:

— Intel can’t cut deals with computer makers in which they’re promised benefits or payments if they avoid chips from Intel’s rivals, and Intel can’t retaliate against computer makers that do business with Intel’s rivals.

— Intel must modify its intellectual-property agreements with rivals Advanced Micro Devices Inc., Nvidia Corp. and Via Technologies Inc. so that those chip-makers can more easily do mergers and joint ventures with other companies without the immediate threat of a lawsuit from Intel.

— Intel must now tell customers that its “compilers” — which are used in software development — aren’t in fact objective and are biased toward Intel’s chips. Software written using them performs better on Intel’s products than on rivals’.

— Intel has agreed to maintain a key type of technology in its chips, called a PCI Express bus, in a way that won’t degrade the performance of other types of chips that connect to Intel’s chips. That part of the settlement speaks to the growing animosity between Intel and makers of graphics chips.