Intel, AMD form advisory group as Arm competition grows
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The news: Intel and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) said they have formed an advisory group to boost the expansion and inter-operability of Intel's x86 computing architecture, and fend off rising competition from Arm Holdings.
The numbers: Intel invented what is known as the x86 computing architecture, a technology that has powered laptops, PCs and data centre servers over four decades.
AMD licenses the technology from Intel and also makes chips using x86, competing directly against Intel under a longstanding legal settlement.
The context: Intel and AMD announced that they are forming an "advisory group", with Broadcom, Dell Technologies, Lenovo Group and Oracle, among others, joining as founding members.
The group will bring together hardware and software companies for technical input on "essential functions and features" for chips from Intel and AMD to make sure they are "consistent and compatible" across a range of uses.
Rival chip maker Arm has eroded Intel and AMD's market share in recent years. AMD licenses a competing architecture for computing to laptop chip designers such as Apple and Qualcomm, as well as to firms like Amazon, Microsoft and Alphabet that use it in data centres.
What they said: Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger said: "Rumors of my death are severely exaggerated. We are alive and well."
"We see that the x86 architecture, this foundation of computing for decades, is about to go through a period of customisation, expansion, scalability [with] the opportunities that AI will present, and our ecosystem is robust and growing," he said.
The sources: AMD media release, Reuters
