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AMD Employee Charged With Stealing Intel Secrets

Posted by timothy on from the great-now-make-them-all-compatible dept.

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."

8 of 212 comments (clear)

  1. Unfortunately by bugeaterr · · Score: 5, Funny

    It was the design of the Pentium Pro's floating point processor.

  2. ... and AMD wouldn't even touch the info by oldspewey · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.

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    1. Re:... and AMD wouldn't even touch the info by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      "AMD" wouldn't touch it but it's quite possible lower level employees would look at it to gain valuable insights. Sure they wouldn't directly clone a design but just seeing how it's done can be invaluable.

    2. Re:... and AMD wouldn't even touch the info by RulerOf · · Score: 5, Insightful

      (AMD) would never touch the stolen info with a 10-foot pole.

      Even if they couldn't directly plagiarize the information to enhance their current architecture (I understand there are a lot of very fundamental differences between them), it would be valuable to AMD if they could determine, for example, how fast Intel's next gen chip is going to be in order to make a product that would be able to compete better, even if it meant sacrificing margins.

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    3. Re:... and AMD wouldn't even touch the info by morgan_greywolf · · Score: 5, Interesting

      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.

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  3. couldn't help it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    He took the "Intel Inside" campaign too far.

  4. Re:On the plus side... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    We all steal IP when we leave. Most of us do it in our heads however.

  5. Re:On the plus side... by Lumpy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Oh holy spagetti monster, every IT person and CS person absolutely rapes the IP when they leave.

    In my boxes that I used to clean out my desk is at least 30 confidential documents that were packed there by the moving company, (I got to keep my desk! that was cool!) and I know I have copies of all the code I wrote when I was there as well as all the SQL queries I wrote.

    I have yet to meet someone that says, "I just left company X, no I don't have anything from my old job..." or " I cant fix that, I fixed that at company Y and they own the IP to that fix."

    All of you rape and pillage IP when you leave. Accidentally or on purpose, you do it. Being a moron and trying to SELL that or taking it with malicious intent? that is the kicker. if he had it because that is how his desk was packed up for him then it's not his fault, nor is he liable for anything.

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