The European Union has fined Intel a record 1.06 billion euros, or 1.44 billion US dollars, over sales tactics the world's biggest computer chip maker used to block smaller rival AMD.

US-based Intel controls about 80 percent of the world's personal computer microprocessor market, with Advanced Micro Devices its only real rival.

The European Commission says Intel broke EU competition law by exploiting its dominant position with a deliberate strategy to keep AMD out of the market. It says the company gave rebates to many computer manufacturers for buying all or almost all their CPUs from Intel and paid them to stop or delay the launch of computers based on AMD chips.

Regulators say Intel also paid Germany's biggest electronics retailer, Media Saturn Holding, to only stock Intel-based computers from 2002 to 2007.

(CCTV May 14, 2009)