AMD fires new antitrust salvos at Intel
According to an AMD-funded research project performed by Dr. Michael Williams of the ERS group, Intel's monopoly in the CPU industry is responsible for $60 billion in profits from 1996-2006. This conclusion is ostensibly based on a number of factors, including:
* Recent findings of the European Commission and the Japan Fair Trade Commission in 2005.
* The rarity of firms that consistently return a 16%+ rate of economic return
* Negative average economic returns earned by other semiconductor companies.
According to the same study, consumers would save approximately 60 billion dollars over the next ten years if the microprocessor market was fairly competitive, while manufacturers would save an additional 20 billion dollars. On the one hand, the fact that AMD backed this particular study casts doubt on its conclusions—but there's no denying that two separate trade organizations have raised significant concerns over Intel's business practices. In March of 2005, the Japanese FTC issued a decision that found IJKK (Intel's Japanese branch) had engaged in activities that forced OEM manufacturers to stop offering competitive products from other CPU manufacturers.
