No. AMD and Intel have a bunch of legally binding agreements that allow each other to manufacture CPUs that are essentially 100% compatible architecture-wise. You can install any OS on an Intel CPU, replace that CPU with one from AMD and expect things to work just the same (talking compatibility, not performance) and vice versa. The 64bit extension for the x86 architecture was created by and is patented by AMD. Intel are able to use that extension in any of their processors without paying royalties, but AMD are the owners of that specific technology. The contracts between these two companies also dictate that those contracts need to be renegotiated in case either company gets bought out, which makes me think that qualcomm would only care about buying intel because it would allow them to essentially permanently deadlock all negotiations and thus kill the x86 architecture, immediatly handing the entire CPU industry to ARM and, going by market share, themselves.
ichbinjasokreativ@lemmy.world 4 months ago
No. AMD and Intel have a bunch of legally binding agreements that allow each other to manufacture CPUs that are essentially 100% compatible architecture-wise. You can install any OS on an Intel CPU, replace that CPU with one from AMD and expect things to work just the same (talking compatibility, not performance) and vice versa. The 64bit extension for the x86 architecture was created by and is patented by AMD. Intel are able to use that extension in any of their processors without paying royalties, but AMD are the owners of that specific technology. The contracts between these two companies also dictate that those contracts need to be renegotiated in case either company gets bought out, which makes me think that qualcomm would only care about buying intel because it would allow them to essentially permanently deadlock all negotiations and thus kill the x86 architecture, immediatly handing the entire CPU industry to ARM and, going by market share, themselves.