AMD Expects a Major Consumer Product Company to Use Its Chips

When explaining what direction Advanced Micro Devices was going to follow, the company's chief executive officer (CEO) implied that it might have already grabbed the interest of a major product maker.

Advanced Micro Devices revealed many things during its Financial Analyst Day, some good (like plans for a “fully fused” APU in 2014) and some bad (like how it was not going to keep launching powerful CPUs, at least for a while).

Now, it is revealed that the corporation, as part of this so-called “consumerization” strategy, will try to integrate more technologies into its chips.

That is to say, it will look for third-party technologies, though it did not specify what exactly they would be.

4G/LTE broadband support is one feature that is most likely to be part of AMD's plans, though nothing is certain.

"We are looking for certain pieces of IP to add to our [existing] portfolio," said Rory Read, chief executive officer of AMD, according to X-bit Labs.

Nevertheless, even if the Sunnyvale, California-based company scores the IP licensing deals it wants, that, alone, will not ensure success.

To truly thrive, it needs to sign some deals with companies, or at least one with a major player on the consumer industry.

As it happens, there might already be such an agreement, and the way AMD defines the other party suggests it might be either Samsung or Apple.

"What if you get a large player across tablets, maybe even across smartphones. laptops, desktops, smart televisions? [That player] is creating a chip solution [that combines x86 IP with theirs], that may change the way people buy things in the future," Mr. Read said.

Apple and Samsung are the only companies that can truly be said to have a big presence on all those market segments. Either way, even if the client demands that the chips feature special blocks of some sort, it will be quite a victory for AMD.