My initial thoughts:
Why would AMD do this? ATI makes some major crap! Their drivers and inefficiencies alone make me shake my head. I marveled at nVidia when they came on the scene. They picked up the slack that 3DFX left. I’m very sad and I hope they’ll be able to continue their products. With their purchase of 5 million worth of technology from RAMBUS in June AMD is up to something. They have everything they need to remove all bottlenecks.
Further deliberation / reasoning:
AMD makes processors, and can make bus recommendations to optimize performance.
RAMBUS technology is RAM, memory controllers, and the related cpu/memory bus.
ATI creates graphics cars, and whereas I don’t agree in their copycat SLi technology, I think working with AMD may allow them to replicate the technology more efficiently if not downright steal SLi. AMD worked with nVidia on it, so they know how it works.
nVidia is starting to get a bit big for their britches, exclusivity contracts and the like. It’ll be empowering to AMD, lets hope they know what to do with it all.