Oct 15 (Reuters) - Intel ( INTC ) and Advanced Micro

Devices ( AMD ) on Tuesday said they are forming a group to help

make sure software works across their chips, responding to a

rising challenge from Arm Holdings.

Intel ( INTC ) invented what is known as the x86 computing

architecture, a technology that for 40 years has powered the

world's laptops, PCs and data center servers. AMD licenses the

technology from Intel ( INTC ) and also makes chips using x86, competing

directly against Intel ( INTC ) under a longstanding legal settlement.

But the market share of both firms has been eroded by Arm,

which licenses a competing architecture for computing to laptop

chip designers such as Apple ( AAPL ) and Qualcomm ( QCOM ), as

well as to firms like Amazon ( AMZN ), Microsoft ( MSFT ) and

Alphabet that use it in data centers. Part of Arm's

successful rise stems from rules in its contracts that all Arm

chips be able to run all Arm software, regardless of who made

the chip.

By contrast, Intel ( INTC ) and AMD use the same underlying x86

technology in their chips, but software sometimes must be

tweaked to work across their offerings. On Tuesday, the two

companies said they were forming an "advisory group" to change

that, with Broadcom ( AVGO ), Dell Technologies ( DELL ), Lenovo

Group ( LNVGF ) and Oracle, among others, joining as

founding members.

"We are excited to bring the industry together to

providedirection on future architectural enhancements and extend

the incredible success of x86 for decades to come," Lisa Su,

AMD's chief executive, said in a statement.