Updated: Chip cloner AMD sort of responds to The Register pressure

Faces flak from Software Satan, however

AMD has decided to take a stance against Microsoft and give away the Win95 patch that cured the crippling of its K6-2 chips after The Register revealed it was frit of the software company. Two weeks after we wrote the story, it started appearing on American wires too, but without attribution to us. But now the Great Satan of Taperecorders has posted the patch on its Web site -- which was down for most of the weekend -- and it can be found at this spot. However, there seems to be a bug at the site. If you accept the very extensive terms at the URL above, rather than decline them, you find yourself unable to download the patch, suggesting that once again the situation is unclear. We noted here the AMD site seemed to be neither up nor down over the US holiday weekend... If, however, you accept the decline option, you are referred to AMD technical support, suggesting that MS has put the boot into its partner on the $35 issue... AMD told The Register when we first wrote the story four weeks ago that Microsoft would not allow it to post the patch. That brought storms of protest from end users, dealers and distributors, all of which resented the $35 they were expected to pay Microsoft for the privilege. At the time, as also revealed here, AMD said it was a commercial issue. Now the company seems to have decided in the face of public pressure that the risk of antagonising Microsoft and its $35 patch is worth it. The problem was with Windows 95, not the chip. ®