AMD promises Intel CPU chipsets

Hey, how could we not?

We never thought we'd see the day, but AMD will soon produce motherboard chipsets for Intel CPUs. Living up to its word, its new chipset and graphics department, or 'ATI,' will do the honours.

DigiTimes spoke with AMD's marketing VP, Jochen Polster. He echos what AMD's CFO, Robert Rivet told APC last year.

"AMD will not abandon or limit any opportunity to cooperate with others and the company will still continue developing chipsets for Intel platforms," says Polster.

According to Polster, AMD isn't keen in tackling Intel's reigning lead in its own processors' chipset market. AMD's goal, he says, "... is not to amass a huge market share, but to obtain a reasonable share."

Inherently, AMD would rather not correlate itself with a significant increase in its archenemy's CPU sales.

Considering AMD now owns a fully-kitted graphics department, one might assume it's now keen on producing platforms to compete directly with Intel's, such as its 'Viiv' or 'Centrino' platforms.

Well, AMD isn't so keen -- quite the opposite, as it turns out. "There is no such plan," says Polster. "In fact, a Centrino-like platform is not a very good strategy for AMD."

Jochen Polster

"If we limit our business partners to develop along the lines of a platform we set, then all PC products will eventually develop into similar solutions, which, in the end, would lead to a price war and minimise profits for all our partners. We believe in an open platform so our business partners can build and develop products that build on their strengths."

On the topic of branding, considering AMD passively rejected APC's suggested 'DAAMIT,' Polster says that "AMD and ATI are both excellent brands and there is no problem with ATI being replaced by AMD's mark."

This doesn't mean ATI products will necessarily see the AMD label. Polster confirms this by saying AMD will continue to brand all of its graphics gear, such as the RADEON range, with the three letters A, T, and I. The privilege to do so, of course, cost AMD $5.4 billion.

Whether AMD will badge the future Intel chipsets as AMD remains unknown. Surely it won't pass on such a brutal opportunity.