Advanced Micro Devices's move to spin off its manufacturing operations generated praise from analysts and questions from Intel about whether it violates a cross-licensing agreement between the two companies.
Intel's lawyers are evaluating whether a new manufacturing business spun out of Advanced Micro Devices could end a long-standing cross-licensing agreement between the firms.
By splitting off its manufacturing operations into a separate company, Advanced Micro Devices could be on track to become the nimble, innovative company that once had Intel on the run.
The financial world seems to be falling apart, but Advanced Micro Devices has just landed several billion dollars from two Abu Dhabi investment groups to fund "Asset Smart," a plan to spin off its chip manufacturing operations into a new company, tentatively called "The Foundry Co."
Advanced Micro Devices plans to split into two companies, one to design chips and one to make them, while two investment funds owned by the government of Abu Dhabi will contribute new capital, it said Tuesday. AMD hopes the move will give it the resources it needs to compete effectively with Intel, which dominates the microprocessor industry.
Hardware vendors, which are just getting a first look at AMD's next-generation server chip, are giving the Shanghai processor an initial thumbs-up, analysts say.
Advanced Micro Devices said its Shanghai processor is on track to ship in servers by the end of the year and sought to reassure customers that the problems that delayed its previous server chip, Barcelona, are a thing of the past.
A former Intel design engineer has been charged with theft of trade secrets from the chip maker while secretly working for rival Advanced Micro Devices.
A Wall Street analyst is predicting that Advanced Micro Devices is preparing to spin off its manufacturing operations into a separate company and may announce the plan as soon as September 15.
The quad-core chips that have sat atop the microprocessor heap for the past two years are about to start being replaced by bigger, burlier six-core processor technology.
The clock is ticking for Advanced Micro Devices.