Mark LaPedus EE Times (12/03/2009 7:39 PM EST)

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Intel Corp.'s legal woes continue. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is expanding its probe against Intel, according to BusinessWeek and other outlets.

Last July, Intel confirmed it had received a subpoena from the FTC investigating alleged anti-competitive business practices at the company. Arch-rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) confirmed it also had received a subpoena from the FTC as part of the Intel investigation.

That action is still ongoing. Now, the FTC is reportedly looking at Intel's relationship with Nvidia Corp., according to reports.

Intel (Santa Clara, Calif.) in February filed a suit against Nvidia (Santa Clara, Calif.) alleging that a four-year-old chipset license agreement between the two companies did not cover Intel's next-generation processors with integrated memory controllers, such as Intel's Nehalem processor.

In October, graphics chip vendor Nvidia halted development of chipsets for next-generation Intel processors that feature the direct media interface (DMI) bus, pending the outcome of current litigation between the two companies.

''The FTC wants to determine whether a lawsuit filed by Intel earlier this year amounts to an effort to slow Nvidia's advance in the graphics chip market and intimidate computer makers from doing business with Nvidia,'' according to BusinessWeek

In separate events, Intel has taken it on the chin on the legal front in recent times. Bitter chip rivals Intel and AMD recently announced a "comprehensive agreement" settling long-running antitrust litigation and patent disputes.

Under the terms of their agreement, Intel said it will pay $1.25 billion to AMD. The chip makers said they will both drop claims stemming from a previous licensing agreement and announced a new five-year cross-licensing deal.

In the Intel antitrust case, the European Commission has imposed the highest fine ever: about $1.45 billion. Intel plans to appeal the decision.

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