[vondur]

I often wonder why Apple doesn't purchase something like AMD. They could design their own x64 chips and GPU's.

[sounds]

AMD's license for the parts of x64 owned by Intel is conditioned on AMD not getting sold. The license wouldn't be transferrable to the buyer.

(So, yeah, AMD could do their own slightly-different chip, using just the bits and bobs that are strictly theirs.)

[detaro]

I thought that deal goes both ways, AMD also licensing important parts of AMD64/x86_64 to Intel, so both sides would have a strong interest in keeping it alive in some form.

[vondur]

Is x64 owned by Intel? How much of the x86 stuff would Apple need?

[flukus]

Remember when apple was tied to the power pc chips? This would likely end up the same.