Re:Run CUDA, unmodified, on AMD GPUs
by nostrademons on Monday July 15, 2024 @05:30PM
(#40971626)
Technically it was after starting - AMD was founded in 1969 as a second-sourcer for Fairchild and National Semiconductor, and had reverse-engineered the 8080 by 1975 and acquired a formal license to it by 1976.
The 1982 deal you speak of was actually pretty interesting: as a condition of the x86's use in the IBM PC, IBM requested a second source for x86 chips. AMD was that source, and so they cross-licensed the x86 in 1982 to allow the IBM PC project to proceed forward. This makes the Intel/AMD deal even more important for both companies: the PC market would never have developed without the cross-licensing, which would've been bad for all companies involved. This gave Intel an ongoing stake in AMD's success at least until the PC market consolidated on the x86 standard.
The 1982 deal you speak of was actually pretty interesting: as a condition of the x86's use in the IBM PC, IBM requested a second source for x86 chips. AMD was that source, and so they cross-licensed the x86 in 1982 to allow the IBM PC project to proceed forward. This makes the Intel/AMD deal even more important for both companies: the PC market would never have developed without the cross-licensing, which would've been bad for all companies involved. This gave Intel an ongoing stake in AMD's success at least until the PC market consolidated on the x86 standard.