Ever since AMD announced its plan to split itself into two separate companies, there have been legal questions surrounding the move. AMD's x86 cross-licensing agreement with Intel has always
required that Sunnyvale maintain a certain corporate structure in order to continue to manufacture x86-compatible microprocessors. When it unveiled its plans to spin off The Foundry Company
(now Globalfoundries), AMD confidently maintained that its plan avoided any licensing entanglements or issues Intel might seek to raise.
AMD has filed a form 8-K with the SEC, advising the agency of a cross-licensing dispute between itself and Intel. In discussions with Ars, however, AMD has also insisted that neither it nor Globalfoundries actually
requires the cross-licensing agreement in order to design or manufacture x86-compatible microprocessors. That's a surprising claim that runs against the general understanding of what the
AMD/Intel cross-licensing agreement allows or contains. Has Intel's ownership/stranglehold on the right to manufacture x86 processors been broadly misconstrued for years?
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