AMD and Intel reach a settlement

It looks like AMD and Intel's long running fight over anti-trust and competition has finally come to an end.

Today we have received news that AMD and Intel have reached a settlement. But the settlement does not just cover the matter of Intel's alleged anti-competitive behavior, but also the x86 cross licensing agreement that has been at issue ever since the Global Foundries spin off.

The terms of the agreement are listed below (taken straight from the press release)

Under terms of the agreement, AMD and Intel obtain patent rights from a new 5-year cross license agreement, Intel and AMD will give up any claims of breach from the previous license agreement, and Intel will pay AMD $1.25 billion. Intel has also agreed to abide by a set of business practice provisions. As a result, AMD will drop all pending litigation including the case in U.S. District Court in Delaware and two cases pending in Japan. AMD will also withdraw all of its regulatory complaints worldwide. The agreement will be made public in filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The settlement is great news on a few levels. First it brings the long running squabble between AMD and Intel to a close (globally). It gives AMD a much needed cash injection ($1.25 billion will go a long way) and allows for the sharing of technology between the two companies. These all add up to an excellent future for the consumer as AMD can stop bleeding out money on lawsuits and complaints around the world and get back the business of competing with Intel in a very serious manner.

Maybe the extra money can go towards helping AMD to finalize Bulldozer and get it to the public quicker than their current plans; if so this would be very good news indeed as Bulldozer is the first CPU from AMD that shows true promise in a very long time.

Of course, now all eyes are turning towards the NVIDIA versus Intel squabble. After all, if Intel settled with AMD, maybe a settlement with NVIDIA is in the near future (and perhaps an x86 CPU with it)