Advanced Micro Devices has filed an antitrust lawsuit against Intel, claiming Intel cemented its dominance of the computer-chip market by coercing and threatening dozens of customers.

Intel used “old-fashioned threats, intimidations and ‘knee-capping’ ” to persuade 38 companies including Dell, Sony, and Toshiba, to exclude Advanced Micro chips from their computers, Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Advanced Micro said in the lawsuit filed in Delaware court Monday.

The suit illustrates the growing frustration of Advanced Micro’s CEO, Hector Ruiz, with his company’s inability to dent Intel’s 80% market share. Filing the suit now may help Advanced Micro capitalize on a March ruling by Japan’s Fair Trade Commission that said Intel unlawfully offered discounts to PC makers if they agreed to limit their business with rivals.

“Intel is aggressive, and they have made comments and done things to push people around,” said Daniel Morgan of Synovus Investment Advisors in St. Petersburg, Fla. “Intel has a lot of firepower behind them.”

“AMD has chosen once again to complain to a court about Intel’s success with a legal case full of excuses and speculation,” Intel spokesman Tom Beermann said. “We strongly disagree with AMD’s complaints about the business practices of Intel and Intel’s customers.”

Advanced Micro’s approach, an escalation of 18 years of legal battles, is “based on throwing everything but the kitchen sink at Intel in the hopes of getting something to stick,” Moors & Cabot analyst Hans Mosesmann said.