The Federal Trade Commission (FTC)voted yesterday to sue Intel, the dominant maker of microprocessors for personal computers, for violating the nation's antitrust laws.

The FTC voted to sue the Santa Clara, California, firm for using monopoly power to muscle its customers and competitors.

There was little disagreement over the facts of the case. Intel cut off several companies from early information on its newest chips because those companies failed to turn over some of their intellectual property.

Intel said repeatedly it has a right to withhold information from companies which decline to reciprocate. But the FTC has said Intel is a monopoly, and special rules apply.

The PC market is dominated by two companies: Intel, which makes the chips that form the heart of four out of five personal computers, and Microsoft Corp, which makes the software that operates them.

The two companies have evolved together, developing each others' software and processors to run together.