[Serious] If AMD went bankrupt tomorrow... what would happen to x86 CPUs?

[Lepton87]

I only started reading this thread so I don't know if somebody linked my old thread or not but here it is:
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2161938&highlight=

 

[Ajay]

Actually that's not quite true!!!

You are correct - I think that we sussed this out some time ago, but thank you for providing the actual documentation. There is allot of information in these documents.

Part III sub part B outlines the terms:

In the event the Designated Intel Competitor undergoes a “change of control” (as
defined in the relevant Designated Intel Competitor Patent Agreement) that is
publicly announced or a Designated Intel Competitor otherwise notifies
Respondent that it has undergone a change of control within five (5) days of such
change of control:

1. for a period of thirty (30) days from the date of the change of control,
Respondent shall not initiate patent litigation against the party acquiring
the Designated Intel Competitor (“Acquiring Entity”) with respect to
products previously manufactured by or acquired from the Designated
Intel Competitor, unless the Designated Intel Competitor and/or the
Acquiring Entity or another entity controlled by one of them has first filed
any suit against Respondent;

and following...

 

[ElFenix]

if intel wants sales it'll still have to sell chips at about the levels it currently does. intel's biggest competitor is no longer AMD, it's intel's own installed base of chips that really aren't that much slower than what it currently produces. core2 is still fine for office work, and nehalem quads are still fine for gaming (nearly always better off upgrading your graphics if your graphics card is that era).

 

[ShintaiDK]

if intel wants sales it'll still have to sell chips at about the levels it currently does. intel's biggest competitor is no longer AMD, it's intel's own installed base of chips that really aren't that much slower than what it currently produces. core2 is still fine for office work, and nehalem quads are still fine for gaming (nearly always better off upgrading your graphics if your graphics card is that era).

^^ This. AMD have been irrelevant for quite some years in the relation.

 

[Erenhardt]

if intel wants sales it'll still have to sell chips at about the levels it currently does. intel's biggest competitor is no longer AMD, it's intel's own installed base of chips that really aren't that much slower than what it currently produces. core2 is still fine for office work, and nehalem quads are still fine for gaming (nearly always better off upgrading your graphics if your graphics card is that era).

Say what?! Core2 and Nahalem better than amd cpus? Any benches that can support this?

 

[NTMBK]

Say what?! Core2 and Nahalem better than amd cpus? Any benches that can support this?

That's not what he was saying. The point he made is that there is no real reason to upgrade if you already have a CPU of that performance. Same applies to high enough clocked Athlon X2s for office work. Intel is struggling to provide a reason for consumers to buy new PCs. Why do you think they have focused so much on low power, small form factor machines? Because people don't need more performance to run Office and Facebook.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Say what?! Core2 and Nahalem better than amd cpus? Any benches that can support this?

E8400 is faster than A6-5400K, when both are stock.

http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=36828418&postcount=5

 

[BigDaveX]

Say what?! Core2 and Nahalem better than amd cpus? Any benches that can support this?

While it'd be an overstatement to say that Nehalem's better than AMD's current line-up, if you look at AT's CPU bench comparison tool the FX-8350 is, generally speaking, only a little faster than the much older Core i7 870, and even somewhat slower in heavily single-threaded benchmarks.