Gates didn't threaten Intel's Grove, says Microsoft attorney

Bill Gates did not threaten Andy Grove, then CEO of Intel, during a three-hour dinner with him in 1995 at which native signal processing was discussed, John Warden, Microsoft's trial lawyer claimed. Gates was just urging Intel to drop the development of native signal processing because the technology was technically incompatible with Windows, and not because it would remove some of the need for Windows. Microsoft has not released the memo, but Microsoft's threat to be friendly to AMD if Intel did not obey Gates' wish is sufficiently well established. The DoJ claims that Microsoft successfully discouraged Intel to drop the development. DoJ lawyer David Boies said on Day One that "what you see is a consistent pattern [of Microsoft] using its monopoly power, using its leverage, using everything it has". According to an internal Microsoft account of a three-hour dinner that Gates had in 1995 with Andy Grove, Gates admitted in a July 1995 email that "we are trying to convince [Intel] basically to not ship NSP". NSP would have made it possible to substitute chip instructions with software other than Windows, written in conjunction with PC makers. In October 1995, Gates said that he thought Intel was living up to its side of the bargain, but that "if Intel is not sticking totally to its side of the deal, let me know". The implication as to what might happen if Intel did not follow Gates' desire was clear. ® Complete Register trial coverage Click for more stories