wbmw, your argument - that IBM bailed out AMD's SOI means that AMD does not have SOI expertise of value to IBM - is simplistic. Of course, SOI is not a single idea but rather a set of technologies involving design, process and wafers which together make a solution.
Is it not possible that IBM had the solution to one very important AMD problem, and that AMD has developed other areas of SOI which IBM wants? This is the type of technology exchange which benefits both partners.
Now, I can believe that IBM and AMD developed expertise in different areas of SOI, and discovered that things work better for both of them if they share technology. That said, it would only explain the announced technology cooperation, and not explain the rumored fab agreement.
IMHO, IBM wants two things out of any fab arrangement:
1. A piece of the action, that is, a percentage of any selling price;
2. AMD's survival as a serious CPU maker so that the industry doesn't get in a stranglehold by Intel - that would be very bad for IBM (and other small creatures ... a play on an old 60s saying).
So, if there is a fab agreement, then it would be IBM's fab, and the terms in point (1) would be made more appealing because of point (2).
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