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A New AMD Licensing Deal Could Create More x86 Rivals For Intel (pcworld.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the new-arch-enemies dept.

angry tapir quotes a report from PCWorld: AMD has announced a plan to license the design of its top-of-the-line server processor to a newly formed Chinese company, creating a brand-new rival for Intel. AMD is licensing its x86 processor and system-on-chip technology to a company called THATIC (Tianjin Haiguang Advanced Technology Investment Co. Ltd.), a joint venture between AMD and a consortium of public and private Chinese companies. AMD is providing all the technology needed for THATIC to make a server chip, including the CPUs, interconnects and controllers. THATIC will be able to make variants of the x86 chips for different types of servers. AMD is much smaller than Intel, and licensing offers it an easy way to expand the installed base of AMD technology. The resource-strapped company will also generate licensing revenue in the process, said Jim McGregor, principal analyst at Tirias Research.

1 of 110 comments (clear)

  1. Is the x86 platform.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Redundant

    .....even relevant anymore?

    Most general computing tasks are being overtaken by ARM (iPhones. iPads. Android devices, etc).

    For the moment x86 has a place in high end desktops and servers however...they will, IMHO, be supplanted by ARM processors. Within a few generations they will be powerful enough to run even the most demanding CAD, photo editing, video editing software....at acceptable performances. Common , off the shelf software is not keeping up with hardware advancements and it will not be long before we start seeing the first ARM based servers (actually I think they already exist). Once that happens, unless some new unforeseen development in computing comes along, that will be the final nail in the coffin for x86.

    Intel will try to muscle, intimidate, vendors in using it's Atom and Celeron lines, and maybe even drop it's prices but at the end of the day, extinction will be unavoidable...... and so the Wintel oligopoly will end as ingloriously as it started.