Updated: Chip cloner AMD sort of responds to The Register pressure
Faces flak from Software Satan, however
Posted in Business, 30th November 1998 17:02 GMT
Free whitepaper – Dell PowerEdge servers 2009 - Memory
AMD has decided to take a stance against Microsoft and give away the Win95 patch that cured the crippling of its K6-2 chips after The Register revealed it was frit of the software company. Two weeks after we wrote the story, it started appearing on American wires too, but without attribution to us. But now the Great Satan of Taperecorders has posted the patch on its Web site -- which was down for most of the weekend -- and it can be found at this spot. However, there seems to be a bug at the site. If you accept the very extensive terms at the URL above, rather than decline them, you find yourself unable to download the patch, suggesting that once again the situation is unclear. We noted here the AMD site seemed to be neither up nor down over the US holiday weekend... If, however, you accept the decline option, you are referred to AMD technical support, suggesting that MS has put the boot into its partner on the $35 issue... AMD told The Register when we first wrote the story four weeks ago that Microsoft would not allow it to post the patch. That brought storms of protest from end users, dealers and distributors, all of which resented the $35 they were expected to pay Microsoft for the privilege. At the time, as also revealed here, AMD said it was a commercial issue. Now the company seems to have decided in the face of public pressure that the risk of antagonising Microsoft and its $35 patch is worth it. The problem was with Windows 95, not the chip. ®

Enabling The Agile Data Center
Automating the Acquisition Process with Enterprise Level CRM
Checklist: Midmarket ERP Solutions
Analyst Keynote: The Register Agile Data Center Summit
Hosted CRM Can Be Your Secret Weapon to Success!

Dirty, dirty PCs: The X-rated picture guide
Top 500 supers - rise of the Linux quad-cores
Early adopters bloodied by Ubuntu's Karmic Koala
Sign up, sign up for The Register IT security newsletter