Not-So Strange Collaborators AMD And Intel Join Forces In New x86 Advisory Group

Once upon a time, you had a whole bunch of CPU architectures vying for dominance. Occasionally, you'd even have multiple architectures from the same vendor competing against each other. As happens in competitive environments, processor ISAs died off one-by-one until the modern day, where we basically have x86-64 for desktops, laptops, and server, Arm for mobile and low-power processors, RISC-V for open-source diehards, and then a few legacy and esoteric architectures hanging around on the periphery.

The dominant position of Intel and AMD's bread-and-butter architecture is under siege on multiple fronts, though. RISC-V is poised to become the ISA of choice for tinkerers and learners, while Arm is making inroads in both laptops and servers. Proclamations of x86's death are often greatly exaggerated, but there's a very real threat here, and Intel and AMD have decided to band together to face it.

The two companies have ...