Market, Partners Positive On 'Fabless' AMD

"I could be wrong. But this downturn is pretty harsh and they aren't ready for it," Kistler said. "I think it's [the spin-off] a marriage out of desperation. [AMD] will try to put a happy face on it. Unfortunately the only face that's going to be associated with it is a sad face."

Intel, too, expressed an interest in the ATIC deal as it pertains to the cross-licensing agreement to produce x86-based microprocessors that exists between Intel and AMD. That agreement is set to expire in 2010, said Chuck Mulloy, legal affairs spokesman for Intel.

"Given the agreement we have with them, we will and we are evaluating what we heard today. It does involve our intellectual property rights and we always defend our intellectual property rights," Mulloy told ChannelWeb on Tuesday.

The Intel spokesman said the confidentiality of the terms of the Intel-AMD cross-licensing agreement prevented him from saying what Intel's potential issues with the ATIC deal might be. Mulloy said that Intel had been pushing AMD to agree to make those terms public "for months," but claimed AMD was not willing to do so.

One knowledgeable source contacted by ChannelWeb said any possible Intel dispute over the x86 cross-licensing agreement in terms of the ATIC deal would likely have to do with the actual percentage of AMD's final ownership stake in the Foundry Co.'s manufacturing assets.

AMD for its part said Tuesday that everything about the fab spin-off was in line with its deal with Intel.

"We are completely confident the structure of this transaction takes into account our cross-license agreements. Rest assured, we plan to continue respecting Intel's intellectual property rights, just as we expect them to respect ours," AMD said in announcing the deal Tuesday morning.

Joseph F. Kovar contributed to this article.