AMD to License Chip Technologies
In a surprising announcement, AMD said Friday that it had plans to allow third parties to license some of its processor technologies. The deal would allow these companies to produce chips that would add features to its own.
Intel, on the other hand, manufacturers its own accessory chips for the most part. Giving its partners more access, could aid AMD in its continuing battle for market share with Intel, analysts say. The second place chipmaker has recently made great strides to level the playing field.
The accessory chips would be able to plug into the same socket as AMD microprocessors. Thus, if a motherboard had space for two sockets, one could be used for the CPU, while the other could be used for the accessory chip, such as one to enhance graphics.
The company has seen success over the past year, especially since it started tinkering with its chip designs. The result has been an increase in market share, and AMD has succeeded in giving the impression to investors that rival Intel is too complacent in both its market position and overall strategy.
AMD plans to focus on multi-core processors, as well as making its chips more energy efficient. Both strategies will appear in new CPUs for server and desktop applications in the middle of next year, and for laptops in the second half of 2007.
News of AMD's plans to open up its processor technology first appeared in the Wall Street Journal on Friday.