Advanced Micro Devices Inc lost a crucial six months of sales in the 80486 market after Judge William Ingram ruled late on Wednesday that the company does not have rights to copy any of Intel Corp’s microcode under their 1976 contract. The company was granted rights to use the microcode in its Am386 parts under a separate ruling in a different case, although that, too, is under further challenge from Intel. The new ruling, which Advanced Micro plans to appeal, means that it will have to write new microcode for the Am486 chip that it has been sampling to a few potential customers and had hoped to ship by the end of the year. It says it will now take until the middle of next year to get a chip out. The Am386 is covered by an award from a court-appointed arbitrator, which gave AMD a permanent, royalty-free non-exclusive, non-transferable worldwide right… under any and all Intel copyrights, patents, trade secrets and maskwork rights contained in the current reverse-engineered 80386family of microprocessors as a remedy for Intel’s breach of the technology exchange agreement between the two companies. Intel is now appealing that arbitration decision.
