Intel makes a big move! Plans to open x86 license to attract chip design companies to turn to it for contract manufacturing

According to the report of IT website The Register, Intel will open the soft core and hard core license of x86 architecture, so that customers can mix different CPU IP cores such as x86, Arm and RISC-V in the custom designed chips made by Intel.

At present, the main reason why the operating system of electronic products is not universal and the software is not compatible is that the CPU architecture is different. Intel's move means that its custom chips are compatible with cores such as Arm, RISC-V and x86 and have functions different from Intel's official processor Xeon family. For example, games that can be played on an Android phone / computer can also be played on an iPhone / computer.

There is no such thing as a free lunch. If you want to get highly customized chips, the designer must use Intel's contract manufacturing service. "We have a so-called multi-ISA (instruction set architecture) strategy," said Bob Brennan, vice president of customer solutions engineering at Intel Foundry. This is the first time in Intel's history that x86 soft cores and hard cores are licensed to customers who want to develop chips. In a broad sense, this is to develop our wafer and packaging business, because IFS (Intel OEM Service, Intel Foundry Services)) is striving to become an excellent contract manufacturing company in the world. "

All in all, it's all about contract manufacturing, and by embracing different CPU architectures, Intel wants to make itself the preferred partner for chip manufacturing.

Intel wants to be more open

Although Intel has not yet made an official announcement, and foreign media have not provided details such as Intel's specific authorization form, charging method, and which x86 kernel is open to which types of customers, it all bodes well for a long time.

Early last year, Intel hinted that it would open the CPU kernel license, saying that it hoped its foundry would provide customers with "world-class IP packages, including x86 kernel, Arm and RISC-V ecosystem IP".

Intel is fully committed to the chip contract manufacturing business, aiming to restore its dominant position in chip manufacturing, and a more open Intel is a prerequisite for achieving this goal. It has shown its sincerity to support instruction set architectures other than the X86 architecture with real money. On February 7th (local time), Intel joined the RISC-V International Foundation and became a "straight-up" senior member, and announced that as part of its IDM2.0 contract manufacturing service strategy, it would set up a $1 billion fund to support start-ups and mature companies with potential in x86, ARM and RISC-V to help all kinds of companies use Intel contract manufacturing services to build disruptive technologies.

Intel has also developed an open Chiplet platform, which hopes to design (Chiplet chassis designs), through a small chip chassis to put the bare chips of x86, Arm and RISC-V cores together and package them into a coherent chip.

TSMC, Samsung, ARM, AMD, etc., may be affected.

Predictably, once Intel's decision to open up the x86 architecture becomes a reality, IP licensees and chip foundry will be affected.

On the one hand, after adopting Intel's highly customized program, chip design companies can mix and build multiple IP, in their semiconductor design so as to give full play to their respective strengths, especially in the tradeoff of power, performance, chip size and other factors. With this feature service, Intel is expected to further seize the market share of ARM and AMD.

On the other hand, this is also a big blow to TSMC, Samsung and other contract manufacturers. For a long time, TSMC has introduced its pure contract manufacturing model as a unique advantage, emphasizing that it does not compete with customers for profits. Now Intel is also beginning to "carry water", on a par with TSMC, vowing to become a more open chip foundry rather than treating customers as competitors.