The United States International Trade Commission (USITC) announced that it will conduct an investigation on certain graphics systems and computing products imported into the country as they allegedly infringe patents owned by Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and ATI Technologies. The companies filed a complaint with the USITC and the federal agency has identified a number of respondents in the investigation, including LG Electronics, VIZIO, MediaTek, and Sigma Designs.

AMD won't be providing Windows 7 drivers for its upcoming Ryzen processors, the company said, contradicting recent reports that indicated AMD would support Microsoft's older operating system.

AMD has filed a legal complaint against a number of companies accusing them of infringing its patents covering graphics processing technologies.

Shares of AMD, which had already risen more than fivefold since last February, jumped another 16% to over $12 on Wednesday after the company reported revenue for the fourth quarter and expected revenue for the first quarter above what analysts had expected.

AMD's eagerly-awaited Ryzen processor will launch in early March, according to AMD chief executive Lisa Su. Su specified the target date during the company's fourth-quarter earnings call recently.

The US International Trade Commission began a patent infringement probe on Wednesday after ZiiLabs charged that several firms were importing products to the US in violation of its patents on graphics processors and DDR memory controllers. It identified 17 firms whose products it wanted to examine, including AMD, Lenovo, LG Electronics, MediaTek, Motorola Mobility, Qualcomm and Sony.

Moore's Law may be coming to an end, but chipmakers and system designers continue to find ways to deliver better performance and integrate more features. In fact, as the industry approaches the fundamental limits of silicon CMOS technology, it seems to be getting more creative, not less. Over the next few years we are likely to see some revolutionary changes to system architecture.