The processor giant is interested in the Mail T658 graphics core

Nov 15, 2011 23:51 GMT  ·  By

Strange things can happen in the technology world which can turn even the most bitter rivals into allies if they both share a similar goal.

This is exactly what rumored to happen with Intel and ARM, as a Notebook Italia report suggest the former is interested in licensing the Mail T658 graphics core from ARM.

The Santa Clara chip maker is most probably interested in using this inside its next generation Medfiled Atom SoC devices that are expected to arrive in 2012 targeting the same low-power tablet and smartphone devices as ARM's own Cortex A9 core.

While surprising, the deal could be advantageous for both companies as Intel will gain access to what seems to be a really powerful graphics core, while ARM should be able to negotiate quite a decent deal with the US processor giant.

So there you have it. Surprising as it may seem, there's a chance that the future will bring us the first Intel Atom processors with ARM hardware inside.