Chip maker AMD is the second largest maker of x86 processors. Of course, these days that’s kind of like being the second biggest tablet maker next to Apple: it’s a distant second, at best.

So it’s not surprising that AMD is looking outside of its own R&D department for technologies that could bring new features to its products — and today the company announced that it’s licensing technology from ARM.

That doesn’t mean AMD will be building low power ARM-based chips for tablets or smartphones though.

arm cortex-a5

Instead, the company will be using ARM TrustZone technology into future products.

AMD calls its latest chips APUs, or accelerated processing units because they combine the CPU, graphics, memory controller, and other components onto a single chip.

Upcoming APUs will also incorporate an ARM Cortex-A5 CPU to offer hardware-level security features. TrustZone can be used to offer malware protection and monitoring, digital rights management, secure payment, and other features.

The new processors are expected to be available for business and consumer laptop and desktop computers in 2013.

via Engadget and Computer World

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2 replies on “AMD licenses ARM technology… for security in x86 chips”

  1. So, you are basing the rational for AMD’s licensing of ARM technology sorely on its smaller size and concomitant R&D budget compared to INTEL? In order word, if they were driven by other concerns, your piece would be totally invalidated?

    You could have reported the same news without making up your own rational. I am sure AMD did not wade into these waters when they made the licensing announcement, so why did you? Is this an opinion piece or a news piece?

  2. It would be nice if AMD made a multicore CPU with both x86 and ARM functionality. That could be the basis for tablets and notebooks that could
    natively dual boot Win x86 and Android ARM.

    Depending on the application, one side or the other could be throttled down depending on what the CPU would be used for the majority of the time.

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