• San Jose Mercury News, Thursday, August 5, 2010 10:22 AM

Intel has agreed to restrictions on marketing practices that federal regulators claimed improperly coerced computer makers to use Intel's chips rather than those of its rivals, Steve Johnson reports. As you might have guessed, Intel did not admit any wrongdoing and says it simply wanted to avoid the cost and time involved in litigation.

Doug Melamed, the company's general counsel, says that the company's business practices "won't change a whole lot, frankly," and that "we would not agree to something that would prevent us from competing aggressively." Most analysts agree that Intel will continue to dominate the chip marketplace but they were pleased by the agreement. "This should spur competition in these important markets and lead to better products for consumers and innovators," says David Balto, a former FTC policy director.

The Federal Trade Commission filed a lawsuit last December, charging that Intel schemed to hinder chip sales by two of its Silicon Valley competitors, Advanced Micro Devices and Nvidia.

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