Semiconductor manufacturers Motorola and Advanced Micro Devices have announced a cross-licensing agreement that could help both firms compete more effectively in key markets.
A central element of the agreement gives AMD access to Motorola's technology for producing copper-based microprocessors. Industry experts say the copper technique should result in less expensive and more powerful processors with smaller circuitry than those based on today's aluminum technology.
AMD needs the copper methods to keep pace with industry leader Intel. Chief executive, Mr W.J. Saunders III, said AMD spends $500 million (£354 million) a year on research and development, a huge outlay for a company with revenues of $2.4 billion in 1997. This agreement should ease that burden by reducing AMD's development costs for copper chips.
"We do not expect our R&D spending to go down, but it may increase at a slower rate," Mr Saunders said.
"The cost of developing these technologies is so high that if you can get to the market faster without greatly increasing R&D spending, that's a huge advantage."
"We'll have production volumes of 1 gigahertz K7s in the year 2000," Mr Saunders said.
