Picture this. Broadcom buys Intel. Stops selling x64 processors. Charges a very expensive license for IP required for AMD to continue making x64 processors. AMD double prices. AMD and Broadcom make out like bandits.
There’s no way Qualcomm is buying Intel as is
Qualcomm may be after more than Intel's PC design business as it has supposedly approached the x86 giant about a possible takeover. That's what unnamed sources told the Wall Street Journal for a report published Friday. CNBC also said it heard the same thing: That Qualcomm contacted Intel about a potential takeover in recent …
COMMENTS
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Saturday 21st September 2024 09:52 GMT mark l 2
I suspect the patents on a the original 16bit and 32bit x86 designs Intel had have now expired as in the US its only for 20 years. AMD own the patents on X86-64 although that is also probably over 20 years ago now. So either company can probably make a x86-64 CPU without needing patents from the other. But of course they have added all these other extensions to their CPUs SSE. MMX etc which means a patent less X86-64 CPU created today might be fine for running older versions of Windows like XP but a lot of newer software that rely of these extensions would not work.
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Saturday 21st September 2024 13:33 GMT Michael Strorm
Picture this. Competition regulators in countless countries throughout the world- including virtually all their major Western markets- come down like a hammer on such blatantly anti-competitive behaviour in such a critical market that it completely f***s up AMD and Broadcom's (*) ability to trade freely and make money at all, let alone "make out like bandits" as planned.
At this point I'll pre-empt the possibility that one of the usual laissez-faire/pseudo-libertarian suspects will suggest that AMD and Broadcom could turn round and say "Oh yeah? Well, where else are you going to get the x86 chips your economies depend upon from? Muwahaha!" then hold those markets to ransom until they capitulate. I suspect that in the real world this would *not* play out in the same way as the Ayn Rand-style fantasy version.
(Partly because even huge companies like that generally *don't* have the ability- or inclination- to sit on their hands without any income for an arbitrary amount of time. But also because they'd find out that even *they* were small fry- and the limits of their powers- when pitting themselves against entire countries who weren't about to let themselves be held ransom by a monopoly that only existed because of laws enforced- or not enforced- by those same governments...!)
(*) Also, I thought we were talking about Qualcomm here- did you genuinely mean Broadcom or are you confusing the two (possibly since Broadcom have been in the news a lot recently since *their* controversial buyout of VMWare)?
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Sunday 22nd September 2024 11:34 GMT Charlie Clark
Re: Watchout for the reverse takeover.
I think that ship sailed years ago. If they try it, everyone will just use Samsung's chips.
The risk with Qualcomm is its closeness to the US military. On the one hand, the US military would have excellent chip design and production facilities under its control, on the other, the US military would have excellent chip design and production facilities under its control! ;-)
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Monday 23rd September 2024 08:51 GMT Torben Mogensen
Maybe only the foundry?
As far as I recall, Qualcomm has no foundry of its own, so it might be mainly this that interests them. They have plenty of chip designers, and their interest in x86 is probably low. Some of Intel's patents may be interesting to Qualcomm, though I can't say which.
So Qualcomm may bid to acquire Intel's foundry (which has recently been split off) to fabricate its own chips and license to others (including what remain of Intel).
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Monday 23rd September 2024 18:34 GMT Missing Semicolon
IP nightmare
Intel's IP extends far beyond the basic tech of X86. I suspect, if QuIntel decided to do IP licensing like Qualcomm does, an awful lot of other semiconductor manufacturers would find they suddenly had lawyers and accountants knocking on their door. And, indeed, so would end-product manufacturers of any device that used any Intel IP.
Also, wave goodbye to any innovation in the processor space for a long time.
Whilst people argue about the immediate financial sense of Qualcomm gobbling up Intel, CEOs like Cristiano Amon would just revel in the awesome power and kudos.