This marks the first time the world's largest semiconductor company has agreed to share the underlying technology behind its X86-based chips, suggesting that Intel has placed a high priority on expanding into the market for smartphones and other small electronics devices.
"We believe this effort will make it easier for customers with significant design expertise to take advantage of benefits of the Intel architecture in a manner that allows them to customise the implementation precisely to their needs," said Intel President and CEO Paul Otellini.
The Atom processor has 47 million transistors and is Intel's smallest processor. Products manufactured through the agreement may find adoption in market segments such as mobile Internet devices (MIDs), smartphones, netbooks, nettops and AC-powered consumer electronics devices.
The processor is designed to bring the whole Internet and the benefits of computing to an emerging class of consumer-friendly gadgets.
Intel's stock was down 0.63% to US$12.23 per share in mid-day trading on Tuesday.
