AMD FIRES SHOTS AT INTEL, IBM: Advanced Micro Devices has filed a wide-ranging antitrust suit against Intel, accusing it of maintaining its monopoly in the PC processor market by illegally coercing customers around the world into using its products, AMD says.

The suit, filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware, identifies 38 companies on three continents that were allegedly coerced by Intel, including large-scale computer makers, small system builders, wholesale distributors, and retailers, according to a statement from AMD, in Sunnyvale, California.

AMD's litigation follows a recent antitrust investigation of Intel by the Fair Trade Commission of Japan (JFTC). In March, the JFTC found that Intel had abused its monopoly power to exclude fair and open competition in the Japanese microprocessor market. The result was to substantially restrain competition, the JFTC says.

The European Commission has also said it is pursuing an investigation against Intel for possible antitrust violations and that it was cooperating with the Japanese authorities.

IBM was another target of what AMD calls "Intel's relentless campaign to undermine marketing efforts by its one remaining competitor." Big Blue pulled its AMD-powered computers from the 2004 Palisades eServer and PC Show citing a contractual agreement with Intel that prohibited IBM from endorsing competing products, according to the complaint. And at the 2004 Super Computing Show, an annual conference devoted to high performance computing, Intel offered two other computer makers money to remove AMD systems from their booths, according to AMD.

The AMD complaint can be found here.