US SEC questioned AMD, Intel, says report

US SEC questioned AMD, Intel, says report
The US Securities and Exchange Commission question the chip providers
regarding PCs shipped in Cuba
Thursday, August 13, 2009

SAN JOSE, USA: Concerned over alleged ties to what has been termed as
"sponsors of terrorism", the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
had last May separately questioned Intel Corp. and Advanced Micro
Devices Inc.

According to a report, the SEC had questioned Intel regarding PCs
shipped in Cuba, based on the company's processors.

It has been pointed out that Cuba, Iran, Sudan, and Syria have been
identified by the US State Department as state sponsors of terrorism,
and are subject to US economic sanctions and export controls.

According to the letter from the Office of Global Security Risk, the SEC
has said that it is aware of a May 2008 news report that PCs in Cuba
contain Celeron processors from the companies. The letter appears in an
SEC filing in May, a semicon industry news report said.

The SEC has further directed the companies to describe to authorities
the "nature and extent of any past, current, and anticipated contacts
with the referenced countries, whether through distributors, resellers,
licensees, or other direct or indirect arrangements."

Meanwhile, Intel and AMD have said that they have always complied with
US trade laws and prohibited any business ties with nations under embargo.

Earlier there were reports that AMD chips are inside Iran's
supercomputers. An Iranian research had said that it used AMD Opteron
Dual Core (16) and AMD Opteron Quad Core (16) to build its super
computer system. However, AMD said it had not exported any chip to Iran.

US SEC questioned AMD Intel says report - CIOL News Reports (13 August 2009)
http://www.ciol.com/Semicon/Biz-Watch/News-Reports/US-SEC-questioned-AMD,-Intel,-says-report/13809123552/0/