FTC approves Intel settlement change, will let it ship Oak Trail without PCIe support

Well, it looks like Intel's settlement with the FTC isn't quite a done deal just yet -- the FTC has now announced that it's approved a change to one key measure of the settlement following a public comment period on the matter. That specifically involves Intel's Atom-based Oak Trail platform, which Intel will now be allowed to ship without PCI Express support -- as opposed to the earlier stipulation that it be required to support PCIe in order to "not limit the performance of graphics processing chips." In the short term, that basically means that Oak Trail devices (mainly tablets) likely won't have non-Intel GPUs, and that Intel will be able to continue to ship such products until June 2013. After that, the original settlement requirements will go into effect, and Intel says it is, in fact, already working on an Oak Trail successor that supports PCIe.