What's the difference, really between hardware engineers and Microsoft - between the hardware guys and the software guys? Why was Microsoft caught in the humiliation of a four year hairball of legislative scrutiny, when Intel escaped without the public knicker-washing. A complicated deal was cut with the FTC in 1997 - at about the time Intel acquired the Hudson plant, and with it the license for StrongARM and the rights to manufacture DEC's Alpha processor. At about the same time, Microsoft was being drawn into the propellors of a vicious Antitrust suit. Why did Intel cut such a shrewd deal, while Microsoft let its garrulous dirty washing hang out to dry?
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