The Criminal Investigation Bureau of Taiwan has four employees at technology companies were arrested because they are illegal engineering samples of Intel processors that have sold. It would go to five hundred testchips in three years.
The Criminal Investigation Bureau recently held raids at four employees at Intel partners in the Taiwanese district, Taoyuan. In addition, they took 178 test versions of Intel processors, with a total value of 2.5 million Taiwanese dollar, the euro 63.000 euro. The four have admitted since 2009 more than 500 sample chips sold to.
Intel provides its partners of the samples, so that they early have the opportunity to get their products to optimize for the chips. The chip manufacturer sets the requirement that they have no information about the models to be revealed and the chips do not resell. The testchips are popular because of the sometimes relatively rare models that is about unlocked multipliers and inexpensive are offered.
It is unclear which companies the four worked. They are risking with their illegal sale, a jail sentence of up to five years.