AMD Employee Charged With Stealing Intel Secrets

IWonderWhatICanPutInThisFieldWithoutBeingDeleted writes "A man who once worked for Intel and then jumped ship to join AMD has been accused of stealing his erstwhile employer's chip secrets. Federal detectives allege they discovered 19 CAD designs and more than 100 pages of confidential Intel documentation."

Comments

... and AMD wouldn't even touch the info

[oldspewey]

The irony is that his new employer (AMD) would never touch the stolen info with a 10-foot pole. The company I work with (also in the IT sector but not hardware) has very, very clear policies around competitive information. They know just how badly it would go for them if they made use of stolen information brought in by a new (or even existing) employee.

Re:... and AMD wouldn't even touch the info

[morgan_greywolf]

The irony is that his new employer (AMD) would never touch the stolen info with a 10-foot pole.

It's not unlike the disgruntled Coca-Cola employees who took the Coke Zero formula to Pepsi. Pepsi wouldn't touch it with Dr. Pepper's 10-foot pole. They turned the disgruntled employees into the appropriate authorities, notified Coke and sent the formula back without breaking the seal.

Duh. The legal hassles alone aren't worth it.

Re:... and AMD wouldn't even touch the info

[HungryHobo]

Kinda surprises me that we don't see more leaked info from anon disgruntled employees.
Would I be correct in in assuming that once something has reached the public that it loses it's "trade secret" status and can be used by anyone.
they'd have to be careful of watermarks etc though.

Re:... and AMD wouldn't even touch the info

[TheRaven64]

Developing a CPU takes around 4-6 years from start to first samples. This is anywhere from 3-5 generations of Moore's law. You need to guess very early on the transistor budget available to be able to make the chip affordable. If you delay the release, you get a bit more design time and a more transistors for the same cost. If AMD know now that Intel's next-generation architecture will have certain performance characteristics, then they might decide that it's worth delaying their next design a bit and rolling out a version with a few features that previously they'd thought they'd have to cut. Alternatively, it might be better for them to bring their new architecture forward and sacrifice a few features to fit it on to a smaller die.

Re:... and AMD wouldn't even touch the info

[veganboyjosh]

Your comment makes me wonder what would happen if the employee from TFA would have posted the secrets to wikileaks or similar...

Re:... and AMD wouldn't even touch the info

[geminidomino]

The basic formula is this: Low integrity loses you both customers and employees. That's not to say that you can't make a profit doing this, but it's the more difficult route.

Ahh, there's your flawed premise. "Low/Lack of integrity" doesn't lose you anything. What loses customers and employees is getting caught.

If you can go long enough without getting caught (as sibling said, to change companies, for example), being a scumbag can be incredibly profitable.

Usefulness?

[AscianBound]

I really have to wonder how significant the information that Intel could get out of these documents is. It seems to me that a few CAD designs and some "confidential" documentation wouldn't be enough to actually give AMD an edge in the market. Even if this information did include Intel "secrets" would they really be things that AMD could implement?

The guy says he copied of the documents "out of curiosity", which doesn't actually strike me as that implausible. I know I have copies of software packages being licensed for $500,000+ to my previous employer. It's not like I'm going to try to use it to make a profit, I just find it interesting stuff and want to be able to keep it.

Intel Pull a Ferrari?

[segedunum]

So Intel pull a Ferrari and take a leaf out of spygate?

http://www.metro.co.uk/sport/formulaone/article.html?in_article_id=65980&in_page_id=58

crimes like this will have to become legal soon

[denis-The-menace]

The sad thing is that such laws are only respected in countries like the US and UK.

Soon countries like China will be able to have much better technologies because they can take the best from all sides and create a super product. Even if the US and UK forbid the importation of such products, companies in the US and UK would be at a disadvantage selling inferior product to other countries.

Patents and copyrights will prove to be our downfall since they no longer encourage progress but prevent it.

One thing that has always irked me...

[gillbates]

Is that I frequently have ideas at home. And write them down. And later use them at work.

Would the discovery of these documents in my home constitute evidence of "stealing trade secrets" in the eyes of my employer? If I decided to leave my current employer and work for the competition, would those hobby projects of mine be a liability?

I'm just curious, because I do quite a bit of independent development, and from time to time, it becomes valuable at work.

Re:Alleged motive: to impress his new employer

[DriedClexler]

Interestingly, General Motors has done the opposite: paid their best employees to work for someone else.

What if it's more sinister?

[Chaset]

Intel pays some guy under the table to "quit" and go work for AMD... oh, and take this envelope with you, hint hint nudge nudge.

Instant competition torpedo.