Love the article. I think you are exactly correct on this being a Xbox One API port. I think what is missing is the implication for Microsoft. MS had to also agree to AMDs licensing terms for the CPU/GPU for the X1, not just the other way around as well. They knew full well this was coming, the question is why?
AMD does not, at this point, have a mobile play. They have, over the last year, strategically set themselves up for mobile, servers, and desktop success, in part by bringing back old talent from the likes of NVIDIA, Apple, and Qualcomm. The other part is owning both and x86 and ARM licenses. They know better than anyone that graphics is driving mobile and pc business, the cpu has been commoditized, and the gpu landscape is wide open and fragmented. In comes MS with their device and service company, the X1 and Xbox Live as the center piece to be leveraged in the consumer space. The X1 is just a virtualized mesh of 3 OS's that runs on common PC hardware, I am looking at you Steam. Who says they won't release a Xbox OS for PC gamers? Not to hard to think that they could just give you a download disk that would virtualize you Win8.1 and then install the Xbox OS in another VM along side. Hardcore gamers could update there hardware as they wanted, and play against all console users at once via Live. As a side note, what better way to extend a consoles life, you could update the hardware anytime you wanted if all or most developers use Mantle, wasn't that the original idea behind DirectX? The X1 name, the ONLY One you need?
AMD's ARM license gives them access to tablets and smartphones. Qualcomm's Adreno was once AMD/ATI's. MS has stuck to Qualcomm in their phones, could it be because the hardware is still very similar, ie easy to port software? X1 has low power cores, AMD could easily add CGN to an ARM core, X1 on the tablet or phone? AMD x86 X1 Surface tablet maybe?
This last part is, I think, the ultimate play for MS. The Xbox is clearly the consumer facing brand for MS, and the engine for unification across all platforms. Platforms being the key word. If AMD can leverage Mantle and get the backing of most of the software developers, I see MS as using the X1 as a strategic partnership with AMD. Think Nokia, and you get my meaning. Intel CPUs are clearly better, but the cpu is commoditized, and their Iris Pro is the same thing MS did with the 360 and now X1. There is clearly a benefit to adding local dram on the die, sorry Sony PS4. Intel gpu is getting better but now where near AMD, and as Apple has shown cpu power is just not that important. I would not be surprised at all if this wasn't a dry run for MS to become more vertically integrated. AMD has the license, the patents, the talent, the roadmap, and aligns very well with MS vision. It's no coincident that AMD let this loose, this is MS vision as well, cross platform everything. It might not be today, or this year, but I would not doubt MS will pick up AMD for a penny, make their own hardware, and still license out all their software for everyone else. At the end of the day software is the one thing that isn't commoditized, it's just unifying the hardware underneath that has kept MS from realizing their dream, and Mr Gate's dream.
