France changes rules on Intel-AMD procurement

THE FRENCH GOVERNMENT has changed the way its procurement documents are filed to exclude the use of trademarks and the mention of clock rates.

It's done so after being prompted by the European Union, which received a complaint some weeks back that many PC tenders included the use of Intel, so precluding AMD from tendering for sales.

The French government is contemplating the use of benchmarks instead of clock rates in such documents.

The European Union, we understand, is also approaching other governments that specify names such as Intel, Microsoft, or even Kellogg's cornflakes in procurement documents.

The French Finance ministry has published its guidance here. Yes, it's in French.

Using our schoolboy French skills, we've teased out that the technical specifications for CPUs should never refer to trade marks, or clock rates.

Microprocessors should be described as X86 and a minimum independent benchmark score can be used.

So that gives Intel, AMD and Via a crack of the tendering whip. µ