The San Jose jury hearing the Intel Corp lawsuit against Advanced Micro Devices Inc over microcode in the Am287 maths co-processor decided that the 1976 second source agreement between the two did not grant Advanced Micro the right to use the microcode. The ruling means that the Sunnyvale, California company will now have to reverse-engineer a new suite of microcode for future clones of Intel Corp microprocessors – but not the Am386, for which another ruling gave it rights. AMD said the setback would not prevent it from continuing to compete with Intel in microprocessor and peripheral products. The jury ruled that AMD did not prove that the disputed language microcodes contained in Intel microcomputers and peripheral products sold by Intel referred to the maths co-processor microcode but also ruled that Intel failed to prove the two disagreed about what the language meant when the pact was extended in 1982. AMD wants the judge to rule on the meaning.
