Intel has reportedly sealed a deal with Advanced Micro Devices, Inc, or most commonly known as AMD. The agreement between the two firms is for Intel to license Radeon graphics technology from AMD. This collaboration comes after the rumors enclosing a graphics licensing agreement with Intel and AMD had been circulating for more than a month.
The Past Of Intel And Nvidia
Back in 2011, Intel signed a graphics licensing contract with NVIDIA. The deal included a $1.5 billion dollar payment, which is made over five years. Both tech companies confirmed that the deal was never intended to enable Intel to make any graphics chips with NVIDIA technology, but it merely served as a protection against patent infringement litigation.
Intel’s previous licensing agreement with NVIDIA ended in March, according to WCCF Tech. In order to prevent any litigator gaps from happening, the chip giant has reportedly begun paying licensing deal to AMD. This new announcement is expected to take place at the Q2 earnings releases of the two companies.
The New Graphics Licensing Agreement
As reported by Market Watch, CEO Lisa Su already laid out AMD's plans and expectations for the coming years. At the Financial Analyst Day of AMD last Tuesday afternoon, Su also shares how the multinational semiconductor company endured a roller-coaster ride. She also showed off the upcoming "Epyc" CPU offering, as well as Radeon GPU product for data-center servers.
Just like the original technique, the main objective of the new graphics licensing agreement is to protect Intel from patent trolling. Both AMD and NVIDIA have a massive portfolio of patents acquired over years of defining modern graphics architectures. However, because of the complexity of modern graphics chips to build its own legal minefield, Intel needs to make the right choice. And with AMD, the company sees much more potentials and good reasons.
