And if you want to get *even* more totally and utterly crazy... Wouldn't this theoretically allow *any* company to manufacture x86 CPUs @ FAT?If so, that might make the name of the companies financing the spin-off a much more interesting piece of information!
If things got that crazy, possibly.
The catch is that those outside parties might have to transfer ownership of their designs in some way to AMD(FAT). The agreement seems to be restricted to the products belonging to either Intel or AMD.
The complexity in setting up such a system would take some time to figure out.
If FAT were merely fabbing, those parties would still own the x86 products, and that would imply that AMD is transfering rights to other entities. It may or may not be a problem, I don't know.
It's no problem for DEAD, because they're basically running alongside FAT anyway.
I also wonder if AMD could get greedy and restrict it so only DEAD's x86s are made in order to keep smaller players from killing the DEAD designs from below. It's far more likely AMD would get hurt before Intel by a sudden flowering of x86 designs.
On the other hand, getting a lot of x86 designs in the fab means FAT has more of a reason to maintain a high-end digital CPU process. Inviting in just any fab customer is going to bring in clients the x86 process wouldn't appeal to.
If FAT can get away with fabbing the world's x86 fringe, it would actually be more valuable.
DEAD would take a hit, though.
edit:
There is one other possible catch.
The license agreement would mean patents that go into AMD licensed products would be cross-licensed to Intel. If other parties produce x86 through AMD, they better not have any patents in their designs that they want to keep to themselves.
Once again, this is no skin off the back of the DEAD designers.
