After rumors surrounding AMD Zen's performance spread, speculations of AMD licensing its own Radeon graphics to big blue rivals Intel is increasing.
According to Forbes, HardOCP's famous computer and technology reviewer Kyle Bennett posted in the site's forum on Dec. 5 that the licensing deal for putting AMD's graphics processing unit of Radeon to Intel's integrated graphics processing unit has already been signed.
The same publication said that Bennett "can be a controversial character" but downplayed by saying that the HardOCP chief editor has been around the field and has legitimate contacts with tech companies Intel, AMD and NVIDIA.
Amid dominating the central processing unit war, Intel is trailing behind the graphics processing unit race and potentially having the GPU of AMD's Radeon in its arsenal just makes sense. In 2011, Intel signed a patent cross-license agreement with NVIDIA to access the latter's graphic patent portfolio. However, that deal will expire March next year and AMD's Radeon might have been the perfect replacement Intel would get to stay relevant in terms of GPU.
Intel seeking help from its biggest competitor in the market might not be a good strategy. With AMD's Radeon Technologies Group, which would possibly be responsible to the companies' GPU licensing with Intel, AMD could access information about the process technology of its big blue rival and use this information to improve its own process tech.
Though Bennett's claims are still speculations, AMD allowing its GPU tech license to be acquired by Intel may be a good business decision to make. AMD, if the rumors were true, would receive millions worth of dollars for the licensing fee and royalties for every Intel processor sold with the Radeon tech on it. Also, AMD's Radeon Technologies Group, which is responsible for the game console chips of both Sony and Microsoft, could obtain process tech from Intel and make AMD's process tech better.
For Intel, meanwhile, with their reputation as makers of the best processor in the market, its acquisition of an improved GPU could solidify its stronghold of the top spot in the CPU and GPU market.