The rivalry between the world's leading processor makers, Intel and AMD, looks to have reached a new milestone, as the two companies jointly announced today that they had reached a new agreement that would enable them to focus on the development of future technologies and products, leaving behind their legal disputes. According to the details of the new pact, the two companies will sign a patent cross-license agreement that will span the next five years, from which both companies are expected to benefit.

“While the relationship between the two companies has been difficult in the past, this agreement ends the legal disputes and enables the companies to focus all of our efforts on product innovation and development,” Intel and AMD said in a joint statement.

In addition to the patent rights from the five-year cross-license agreement, Intel has agreed to pay $1.25 billion to its Sunnyvale, California-based competitor, AMD. Intel has also agreed to abide by a set of business practice provisions. In return, the world's second largest CPU maker, AMD, will be renouncing all of the pending litigations, including the case in the U.S. District Court in Delaware, two cases in Japan and will also give up on its regulatory complaints worldwide.

Despite the new agreement between the two companies, Intel is still faced with the US$1.5-billion fine that has been brought upon it by European regulators, following a case filed by AMD back in 2004. The Santa Clara, California-based leading chip maker is now appealing the said ruling. Also, we should not forget that Intel is now facing a new antitrust suit, filed last week by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo.

Whether this agreement will benefit the consumers is a matter of time, but it should be noted that AMD would certainly benefit from the extra cash, which might go into R&D and consequently provide consumers with a couple of interesting products in the future.