AMD, Intel go from worst enemies to best friends to upgrade x86 and ward off the Arm scare

AMD and Intel, Team Red and Team Blue have been perpetual enemies trying to get ahead of each other in the x86 arms race. However, there is another Arm in the mix that is quite different from the two fundamentally and threatens the existence of both AMD and Intel.

The ARM architecture is far more efficient which is why it has been the basis of mobile phone chipsets for the longest time. And while a decade or so ago, x86 chips from Intel still were the dominant force in the desktop and server space, that is changing swiftly. First, it was Apple that ditched Intel for its own in-house M-series silicon, and now Microsoft has also started offering several Arm-based Qualcomm Copilot+ PCs, that have neither AMD nor Intel.

The threat is very real and it looks like AMD and Intel are finally acknowledging the common enemy they have. Today, the companies have announced the new x86 Ecosystem Advisory Group that has been formed to improve x86 and AMD64 (the 64-bit version of x86 that AMD licenses to Intel), and the entire software and hardware ecosystem that is reliant on it.

In the press release, AMD and Intel have laid out the main highlights as well as the purpose behind the formation of the group. It says:

The advisory group aims to unite industry leaders to shape the future of x86 and foster developer innovation through a more unified set of instructions and architectural interfaces. This initiative will enhance compatibility, predictability and consistency across x86 product offerings.

To achieve this, the group will solicit technical input from the x86 hardware and software communities on essential functions and features.

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The intended outcomes include:

• Enhancing customer choice and compatibility across hardware and software, while accelerating their ability to benefit from new, cutting-edge features.
• Simplifying architectural guidelines to enhance software consistency and interfaces across x86 product offerings from Intel and AMD.
• Enabling greater and more efficient integration of new capabilities into operating systems, frameworks and applications.

Microsoft happens to be one of the founding members of the group. It also has Broadcom, Dell, Google, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, HP Inc., Lenovo, Meta, Oracle, and Red Hat, and luminaries include Linus Torvalds and Tim Sweeney.