AMD’s antitrust lawsuit alleging Intel coerced hardware vendors and retailers into using Intel’s chips instead of AMD’s with discriminatory pricing, market pressure and intimidation is bound to capture the attention of much of the tech industry for some time to come.Almost 40 companies listed in the complaint received discovery retention notices from AMD, requiring them to keep documents related to this case, Mike Simonoff, an AMD spokesman, told IDG News Service. And so far, AMD has built its case on discussions with industry partners, he said. AMD believes that Intel’s practice of providing PC companies with marketing dollars in exchange for purchasing certain amounts of Intel chips excludes AMD from competing on the basis of its technology, AMD executives said in a conference call. AMD will attempt to prove in its antitrust case that this behavior harms consumers and competition. Intel strongly denies any wrong doing. (See an InfoWorld Special Report). The case is expected to start by the end of next year, IDG News Service reported. Some of the documents produced during the Japan Fair Trade Commission’s investigation of Intel’s business practices revealed that Intel withheld market development funds from Sony, Toshiba, Fujitsu, and other Japanese PC companies unless those companies agreed to drop AMD from their products. Intel disagreed with the JFTC’s interpretation of those business practices and did not admit any wrongdoing, but it did not dispute the validity of the charges. In its 48-page complaint, AMD also outlined several instances in which mar-ket share leaders like Dell and Hewlett-Packard were pressured to maintain or develop exclusive relationships with Intel, or risk the loss of marketing dollars. Past attempts at pinning anticompetitive behavior on Intel have not succeeded because the world’s largest chip maker has been able to compete aggressively without running afoul of antitrust regulations, said Nathan Brookwood, principal analyst with Insight 64 in Saratoga, Calif.“Historically, I’ve always believed that Intel took its obligations as a dominant supplier in the marketplace very seriously. If the AMD claims have any basis in fact, it’s going to shake my perspective on this,” Brookwood said. It is no great secret that Intel provides the so-called market development funds — really just cash payments — to PC vendors to support marketing activi-ties around new chips or new technologies, said Roger Kay, vice president of client computing at IDC in Framingham, Massachusetts. The specific details of the program are not as well known, but Intel essen-tially rewards PC companies for including key marketing messages in their adver-tisements around concepts such as Intel’s Centrino mobile technology. The funds can sometimes account for more than half of a company’s marketing budget for a specific product, Kay said. AMD will attempt to show that these market development funds are also de-pendent on maintaining an exclusive relationship with Intel, or fulfilling a quota for a certain amount of Intel chips. This could be trickier than just pro-ducing documents and evidence about “suspicious-looking behaviors” on the part of Intel, Kay said. “In a market where there is competition, which supplier is not going to offer some kind of benefit [to its customers] if they are prepared to commit to some kind of exclusivity?” said Brian Gammage, a vice president with Gartner. Technology Industry