AMD in Hot Water
Category: CPU'sPosted: March 16, 2009 09:34AM
Author: redtigerdragon
Intel has stated that it plans to pull its cross-licensing agreement in the next 60 days. This is due to AMD’s new manufacturing arm, GlobalFoundries, in which it partnered up with Abu Dhabi. The licensing deal, made in 2001, allows AMD to make chips based off of the X86 design, but stipulates that it can only use foundries for twenty percent of their total capacity. Intel argues that the new foundry company is now a third party, and therefore not subject to the licensing agreement. This could in turn lead to GlobalFoundries hawking Intel's intellectual property to other companies using the foundry. Intel will more than likely require GlobalFoundries to come to a legal agreement with Intel regarding this issue, as Intel already has an agreement with another foundry company, TSMC.
