Intel is licensing AMD's graphics

[humbug]

Its still not officially confirmed, because Intel would not want to be seen using AMD tech (even tho they already are) it may never be officially announced.... pinch of salt with this one.

Done deal

We can now confirm the rumours that Intel has given up on Nvidia because it has written a cheque to license AMD's graphics.

It looks like veteran GPU editor Kyle Bennet was right when he first reported the rumor, however wild it sounded. We didn't contemplate it but wrote about it several times. Intel needs a GPU licence and the Nvidia – Intel licensing agreement ended on March 17 2017, so Intel doesn’t have a licensc. It is more likely that Intel has a licencee from AMD but neither company has officially announced it.

Apple is licensing GPU tech from Imagination Technologies at least for the next eighteen to twenty four months until it gets its own. Samsung, MediaTek use ARM or Imagination Graphics IP but even without these two have good desktop / notebook graphics. Qualcomm acquired a huge set of IP from ATI when it was known as Imagion, and was the foundation for the Adreno today.

Nvidia Intel's shotgun wedding ends in divorce

If you are in Intel’s shoes,there are two options, Nvidia or AMD. We know that Nvidia sued Intel and forced it into a settlement and now that the shotgun wedding is over, Intel wants out. Nvidia and Intel had many disagreements over the Nforce chipset and the licensing, that resulted with $1.5 Billion settlement that Intel agreed to pay for five years. It does tend to sour a marriage somewhat if you go to court BEFORE the honeymoon, or indeed the marriage. Or the copulation - oh sorry we didn't mean to menion sex.

AMD needs money and licensing is a healthy revenue stream that will keep it going for numerous quarters. The licensing money usually positively affects gross margins, again something that AMD desperately needs to improve.

AMD loves Intel

Raja Koduri, Senior Vice President and Chief Architect, Radeon Technologies Group worked at Apple and worked closely with Intel too. He probably played an important role in these negotiations.

It remains to be seen when it will be formally announced and when it will start affecting AMD’s bottom line. The cooperation and agreement will allow Intel to access AMD’s graphics Intellectual Properties and most things Radeonish.

AMD will weaken its position to fight Intel on in the integrated solutions, but licensing money should help overcome that issue. Despite that fact that these companies compete, they are close when it comes to graphics.

Of course, when we came to know the existence of the deal, we will dig much harder to get the many more details about potential new products and if the Radeon will get inside of the future Intel CPUs. Intel takes a lot of time to implement a new architecture.

http://fudzilla.com/news/graphics/43663-intel-is-licensing-amd-graphics

 

[hrockh]

I'm not quite sold on this one honestly. I guess only time will tell.

 

[D.P.]

I'm not quite sold on this one honestly. I guess only time will tell.

There is also a big difference between a license agreement and technology sharing. NVidia and AMD own so many patents in this area it would be extremely hard to developer a graphics processor without infringing on someone's patents. Getting a licensing agreement merely allows you to develop your own technology with out the risk of getting sued, like what has already happened with Intel and Nvidia. Intel may very well be getting a license form AMD, but they probably wont get any technology or IP. Its also not surprising in the slightest given nvidia and Intel are arch enemies and nvidia has already sued Intel for IP infringement. This probably means that Intel are extremely confident that they wont be loosing significant CPU market share to AMd anytime soon, otherwise Intel would have looked elsewhere for a license agreement such as Imagination Technologies or qualcomm.

IF AMD was really giving actual IP thrn they woudl find themselves in a pricing war against Intel when the next round of consoles comes along. Why use an AMD APU if you could use an Intel APU that has the same technology? AD's biggest advantage over Intel is PAUs with half decent graphics capabilities. Why on earth would AMD purposely let Intel be a giant rival. The only reasons would liekly be things like AMd have very poor internal forecasts of short-term profits needed to service its debts so to mitigate risks of folding they are taking big cash injection by giving their competitor their biggest asset.

 

[humbug]

There is also a big difference between a license agreement and technology sharing. NVidia and AMD own so many patents in this area it would be extremely hard to developer a graphics processor without infringing on someone's patents. Getting a licensing agreement merely allows you to develop your own technology with out the risk of getting sued, like what has already happened with Intel and Nvidia. Intel may very well be getting a license form AMD, but they probably wont get any technology or IP. Its also not surprising in the slightest given nvidia and Intel are arch enemies and nvidia has already sued Intel for IP infringement. This probably means that Intel are extremely confident that they wont be loosing significant CPU market share to AMd anytime soon, otherwise Intel would have looked elsewhere for a license agreement such as Imagination Technologies or qualcomm.

IF AMD was really giving actual IP thrn they woudl find themselves in a pricing war against Intel when the next round of consoles comes along. Why use an AMD APU if you could use an Intel APU that has the same technology? AD's biggest advantage over Intel is PAUs with half decent graphics capabilities. Why on earth would AMD purposely let Intel be a giant rival. The only reasons would liekly be things like AMd have very poor internal forecasts of short-term profits needed to service its debts so to mitigate risks of folding they are taking big cash injection by giving their competitor their biggest asset.

Things like console licensing will have been negotiated between AMD and Intel, as you said Intel don't expect to lose much market share to AMD, despite AMD's Zen cores and a very clear lead in GPU tech i would agree with that purely on Intel's mind-share alone, for example Toms Hardware couldn't bring themselves to recommend a single Ryzen CPU despite their own reviews clearly showing the Ryzen 5 CPU are better than Intel's i5's even from a purely gaming perspective, even when this was pointed out to them on mass they just clamped up and ignored the mass disgusts with their "Best CPU" nonsense.
So no, i don't even think AMD expect to earn any significant market share from Intel, so for them this is a no brainer, if AMD have no chance no matter what they might as well get something off the back of Intel's success.
And it wont matter to Intel because all they want is a chip they can go back to the likes of Apple with, who have been showing a trend towards AMD over these past few years, certainly nVidia have fallen out of favour with them.

AMD will have negotiated console exclusivity with Intel, AMD are not stupid and if Intel had not agreed they would have had to go crawling back to nVidia cap in hand, who would have given them old obsolete crap at a ridiculous price. as you said between them AMD and nVidia own GPU tech.

 

[kazuya1337]

This is probably the beginning of the end for AMD, companies like Intel are ruthless and I don't think AMD have Nvidia's clout if things go pear shaped and it will.

 

[henson0115]

humbug spot on for a change, why does it always have to lead to doom and gloom...

 

[Davedree]

As long as Amd protect themselves from Intel using it to improve their Larabee project-xeon Phi position in deep learning and similar markets.
Then it will be a good move as Amd will never be able to gain marketshare in Mobile like laptops and Nuc's, and the licence will provide hopefully a healthy income.

 

[Rroff]

This is probably the beginning of the end for AMD, companies like Intel are ruthless and I don't think AMD have Nvidia's clout if things go pear shaped and it will.

AMD have faced far worse challenges from Intel in the past and survived - though some potentially key staff who can be credited for that survival have since left so who knows how things would pan out down the road. I think people are reading too much into this though and its also likely Intel and nVidia will come to some kind of settlement eventually when they've finished jostling for best position at the negotiating table.

 

[D.P.]

humbug spot on for a change, why does it always have to lead to doom and gloom...

Quite the opposite, humbug seems to be portraying a doom and gloom argument that AMD are going to fail so they need to make a quick buck. That is an extremely pessimistic outlook.


In contrast, my post was indicating a much more positive outcome for AMD, that the licensing deal is merely to prevent legal entanglement and there wont actually be an exchange of IP. AMD would gain some modest cash without giving away their biggest selling point to their main competitor.


take your pick on who is right. I just hope I am otherwise AMD shareholders wont be very happy!

 

[humbug]

No i'm not ^^^^ Ryzen may not shift Market share significantly but it is bringing AMD much needed revenue, it is a success.

 

[varkanoid]

aw geez "We can now confirm the rumours that Intel has given up on Nvidia because it has written a cheque to license AMD's graphics." what a load of ballstones. First off who the hell uses cheques nowadays much. Secondly how did they confirm it ? Nick Intel's cheque stubs.

It is more likely that Intel has a licencee from AMD but neither company has officially announced it.

so you haven't confirmed it as the only way you could confirm it is if Intel and AMD announced it.

I hate the term but smacks of fake news. No evidence. No confirmation. Just rumour and speculation on something that might happen, but hasnt yet.

 

[Tute]

I thought Intel's integrated solutions were actually quite competitive - and does this mean that all the work on the now defunct Larrabee is just work down the toilet?

 

[humbug]

I thought Intel's integrated solutions were actually quite competitive - and does this mean that all the work on the now defunct Larrabee is just work down the toilet?

Intel's iGPU solution's needed to be two or three times the size of AMD's to keep up, that's clearly not sustainable, especially given that Intel no longer have a processing size advantage.

 

[Kaapstad]

https://www.techpowerup.com/233444/intel-denies-graphics-ip-licensing-deal-with-amd

 

[D.P.]

LOL, I thought as much.


The other thing is Intel currently have a license Nvidia, do you see Intel IGP supporting Pascal technology? No. So even if Intel would license AMD graphics IP, why would you expect any actual AMD technology to appear. in Intel CPUs. It would be an absolute disaster for AMD if they did that.

 

[Gregster]

"Fudzilla are idiots, as usual wrong. same people who got disenfranchised by AMD for being idiots"

 

[henson0115]

so much doom and gloom hahaha

 

[AlamoX]

these next couple year are going to be a pain for intel, gaming helped them in desktop against ryzen, but HEDT and servers AMD might have an edge with performance/$, and when it comes to mobile it's going to be a slaughter, +50% cpu and +40% gpu, that's like R5 1400+ 750Ti with low power and super thin.
i do actualy understand if intel prefere not to give AMD more money, their igpu will be burried anyway.

 

[orbitalwalsh]

Intel use Polaris, AMD APU uses Vega. Sorted, job done. Powerful but slightly different directions