Intel and AMD join forces to form x86 Ecosystem Advisory Group at Lenovo Tech World '24

For the first time in history, Intel and AMD have gone into partnership: the x86 Ecosystem Advisory Group. The group includes 11 of the most influential tech companies in the world, namely Broadcom, Dell, Google, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, HP Inc, Lenovo, Meta, Microsoft, Oracle and Red Hat.

Tim Sweeney, Founder and CEO of Epic Games, and Linus Torvalds, creator of Linux, complete the line-up.

The announcement of the x86 Ecosystem Advisory Group coincided with the first day of Lenovo Tech World ’24, where both Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger and AMD CEO Dr Lisa Su shared the stage – albeit at different times.

Pat Gelsinger on the x86 Ecosystem Advisory Group

In a freewheeling and upbeat speech at Lenovo Tech World ’24, Pat Gelsinger was the first to speak. And he started in defiant tone.

“Some have said, well, you know, is the x86 done? Well, I’ll tell you, rumours of my death are severely exaggerated. We are alive and well, and the x86 is thriving.”

At which point some might say why set up an advisory group, but Gelsinger emphasised that this was a period of expansion rather than defence. Defence, some might say, against the rising threat of the Arm architecture via both Qualcomm and Apple.

“We think of it as one of the most significant periods of innovation in front of us, and we see that the x86 architecture, this foundation of computing for decades, is about to go through a period of customisation, expansion, scalability,” he said, adding that thanks to the “opportunities that AI will present, our ecosystem is robust and growing”.

Referring to the x86 Ecosystem Advisory Group, he commented that “for once Lisa and Pat agreed on something. Who would have thought?”

Dr Lisa Su on the x86 Ecosystem Advisory Group

AMD CEO Dr Lisa Su on-stage at Lenovo Tech World ’24 (image: TechFinitive)

Shortly after Pat Gelsinger left the stage, Dr Lisa Su appeared.

“So you actually heard this morning from one of our other partners, Intel,” she said, the tiniest of smiles appearing. “So Pat was on stage, and he mentioned our x86 advisory group. That is something that tells you just how unique a time this is in technology.”

Dr Su then briefly gave her take on the idea behind the x86 Ecosystem Advisory Group.

“At the end of the day, what we’re trying to do is accelerate compute and accelerate the adoption of compute. x86 has been the foremost leader in architecture over the last 40 years, and the idea is AMD and Intel are bringing together all of these founding members [who] can really accelerate the pace of innovation going forward.”

What does the x86 Ecosystem Advisory Group hope to achieve?

We’ll quote directly from Pat Gelsinger, who gave a fluent summary of what the x86 Ecosystem Advisory Group has been set up.

“The advisory group brings together leaders from across the ecosystem to shape the future of the x86 to simplify software development, to ensure interoperability and interface consistency, to provide developers with standard architecture tools, instruction sets, to have a clear view of the future.

According to the press release, simultaneously published on both AMD and Intel’s sites, the intended outcomes of the group cover three key areas:

Enhancing customer choice and compatibility across hardware and software, while accelerating their ability to benefit from new, cutting-edge features.
Simplifying architectural guidelines to enhance software consistency and interfaces across x86 product offerings from Intel and AMD.
Enabling greater and more efficient integration of new capabilities into operating systems, frameworks and applications.

One minor but perhaps telling note. In his address, Pat Gelsinger listed VMware as one of the founding members of the group. Perhaps a simple “mis-speak”, but also an indication of who will be announcing it will soon be joining the group.