Intel And AMD Inside

Rivals to collaborate on hybrid mobile chips

AMD AND INTEL do not make a habit of cooperating. That’s putting it mildly; they enjoy a somewhat heated rivalry. It hasn’t stopped them cutting a deal, though—Intel is going to put a Radeon GPU into its mobile chips. Shock. Intel says the deal will bring together the “Intel Core H series processor, second-generation High Bandwidth Memory (HBM2), and a custom-to-Intel third-party discrete graphics chip from AMD’s Radeon Technologies Group.” Intel has also managed to get hold of AMD’s top GPU architect, Raja Koduri, to be a senior VP, and lead its high-end graphics development team— quite an acquisition.

It is the first time since 1980 that the pair has collaborated over anything except writing industry standards. It has also been some time brewing. A year or so ago, rumors started that the two were in cahoots over GPUs, and both sides went to the trouble of denying it. Issuing strident denials is, of course, pretty suspicious, so this announcement hasn’t exactly come as a huge surprise.