Nvidia / intel Settle

[Kano]

Nvidia had a licence for all frontside bus cpus, but new Intel chips don't use that anymore. That means the licence would be completely useless. I have got no idea how much Nvidia had payed before, but Intel most likely agreed to the payment because they do not like to spend lots of time with a court case which would lead to a fine, because they have to offer a licence to 3rd parties for that. As the new chips have got integrated gpus basically the time is over for those Nv solutions. Even Apple will use Intel onchip solutions later this year. The only way to get rid of that x86 cpu case is to sell ARM cores combined with a powerful gfx core. Those Tegra (2) chips are definitely interesting - especially since you could use em to produce now Android tablets with hdmi output and Flash support. Android 3 will definitely improve sales of ARM based solutions and Nv has got a nice chip for that. Of course it will still take some time till dedicated gfx chips are superseeded by onchip solutions, so they could still sell those too - but that will most likely be not always the case. Maybe 10 or 20 y later nobody pays a penny for those...

[deanjo]

Even Apple will use Intel onchip solutions later this year.

Don't be so sure of that, at least in a product where it is the standalone offering for graphics.

[t.s.]

1.5b, wow.

This will keep Nvidia in the game for quite a while longer.

Does anyone know what patents exactly were in question? If Intel starts using nvidia technology on their GPUs/APUs, what will this mean for open source drivers?

Indeed. It'll be interesting.

Don't be so sure of that, at least in a product where it is the standalone offering for graphics.

Heard that that one will use Sandy Bridge + AMD.

[deanjo]

Heard that that one will use Sandy Bridge + AMD.

That wouldn't be a standalone offering. Apple already offers products that are hybrids with intel IGP's and nvidia gpus. Rumblings are that Apple are considering using Fusion processors for their low end entry products as they want everything that they sell to have satisfactory openCL performance and Sandy Bridge doesn't handle openCL on the IGP, it can only do it on the CPU.

[DeepDayze]

I'd say Intel should buy nVidia...just like AMD bought ATI

[deanjo]

I'd say Intel should buy nVidia...just like AMD bought ATI

Ya that would be great for vendor lock in and killing any chance of mix and matching products. Not to mention pretty much crushing AMD into oblivion.

[BlueJayofEvil]

There have been rumors over the last few years of Nvidia possibly looking to buy out VIA. If they did then they would have some patents to leverage a cross-license agreement with Intel and probably get the x86 license. I don't know if those rumors have any weight to them, but it would make for an interesting strategy on Nvidia's part.

[t.s.]

That wouldn't be a standalone offering. Apple already offers products that are hybrids with intel IGP's and nvidia gpus. Rumblings are that Apple are considering using Fusion processors for their low end entry products as they want everything that they sell to have satisfactory openCL performance and Sandy Bridge doesn't handle openCL on the IGP, it can only do it on the CPU.

Yep, SB doesn't handle openCL on the IGP, that's what i heard too, and then Apple planned to use SB + discrete (?) AMD. That's what the rumours said.

[Ex-Cyber]

There have been rumors over the last few years of Nvidia possibly looking to buy out VIA. If they did then they would have some patents to leverage a cross-license agreement with Intel and probably get the x86 license. I don't know if those rumors have any weight to them, but it would make for an interesting strategy on Nvidia's part.

Doesn't VIA already have an "x86 license" (whatever that means these days) since they bought out Centaur? The latest Nano iterations supposedly even have SSE4.

[curaga]

There have been rumors over the last few years of Nvidia possibly looking to buy out VIA. If they did then they would have some patents to leverage a cross-license agreement with Intel and probably get the x86 license. I don't know if those rumors have any weight to them, but it would make for an interesting strategy on Nvidia's part.

And it has been pointed out in response that the x86 license is not transferable. If Nvidia bought Via, it wouldn't get the license.