Intel and AMD Partner to Take on Arm

Intel and AMD today announced the formation of an x86 Ecosystem Advisory Group aimed at countering the threat from Arm. The group will focus on ways to expand the x86 processor architecture in the modern era.

“We are on the cusp of one of the most significant shifts in the x86 architecture and ecosystem in decades – with new levels of customization, compatibility and scalability needed to meet current and future customer needs,” Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger said “We proudly stand together with AMD and the founding members of this advisory group, as we ignite the future of compute, and we deeply appreciate the support of so many industry leaders.”

“Establishing the x86 Ecosystem Advisory Group will ensure that the x86 architecture continues evolving as the compute platform of choice for both developers and customers,” AMD chair and CEO Lisa Su added. “We are excited to bring the industry together to provide direction on future architectural enhancements and extend the incredible success of x86 for decades to come.”

The advisory group includes two famous individuals–Linux creator Linus Torvalds and Epic Games founder Tim Sweeney–as well as founding members Broadcom, Dell, Google, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, HP, Lenovo, Meta, Microsoft, Oracle, and Red Hat. Its first goal is to simplify the x86 architecture by unifying its instruction set and interfaces, which should “enhance compatibility, predictability and consistency.” Future x86 architectural features will be the result of industry-wide collaboration and will span client, edge, embedded, cloud, and data center devices.

Though Intel and AMD acknowledge that they are “vigorous competitors,” the two firms also have a rich history of collaboration. They’ve partnered on platform-level advancements, standards, and security vulnerability mitigation, and on key technologies like PCI, PCIe, Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI), and USB.

Though the word “Arm” is never mentioned in the joint announcement, Arm is very much the target here. Intel and AMD claim that x86 is “the world’s most widely used computing architecture,” but this aging platform has been relegated to minority workloads in today’s Arm-powered personal computing market, with the mobile-focused architecture starting to make inroads in core x86 markets like PCs and the data center.