Less than a year ago, it was reported that Intel was looking to strike a deal with its rival, AMD, to license the red company’s GPU technologies. It seems that a patent licensing deal has been agreed by both companies and as a result, Intel will be manufacturing its processors with AMD graphics in 2017.
First reported by HardOCP’s Kyle Bennett, the “first product AMD is working on for Intel is a Kaby Lake processor variant that will positioned in the entry-to-mid level performance segment.” In addition, it is said that Intel’s upcoming processors will be an ‘multi-chip-module’ processor, which basically means that the AMD GPU die will be separate to the actual CPU – instead of being integrated into one chip.
It’s also rumoured that Intel may bring its AMD-powered CPUs to the consumer market as early as this year, but I would advise our readers to take this one with a pinch of salt. It seems quite unlikely that AMD will be supplying its GPU technologies to Intel anytime soon, since the company is still currently focusing on launching its own lineup of processors this year.
It’s worth mentioning, however, that Intel’s US$264 million per year (about RM1.16 billon) GPU patent deal with Nvidia will expire in March 2017. That being said, one shouldn’t expect Intel or AMD to make any public announcement regarding this agreement – probably to avoid any unwanted speculations floating around.
(Source: HardOCP, TechPowerUp, Overclock3D)
