Intel faces another probe

Business practices come under US investigation

Graham Palmer of Intel is confident that the company has done nothing wrong

More scrutiny of Intel's business practices were announced when US regulator the Federal Trade Commission announced an investigation into the world's largest chip firm's business practices.

Intel is already under investigation by the European Commission and last week it was fined $25m (£12.7m) by a Korean anti-trust regulator.

The investigators are examining whether or not incentives from Intel to PC makers to use its chips act as anti-competitive behaviour against rival chip maker AMD.

Intel holds about 80 per cent of the market for x86 processors.

Sources say that new evidence has emerged which prompted the stepping up of the US investigation.

In a recent interview with Computing, Intel's UK head Graham Palmer said "we believe our business practices are entirely ethical."