Well realistically given Intels track record in court. I think a settlement will happen.
I was reading thru this thread to see if I needed to make this point or if someone else had already, as you did.
Yes it is true, surprisingly for as deep of pockets as Intel has if you do go and look at their track record when it comes to lawsuits they actually have a pretty piss-poor record on these things.
The web-domain, Intelsinsides.com, we could probably countdown the days before the imminent domain suit is filed against NV by Intel. That was just silly of them to register a domain with Intel's name in it, that's a gimme for being transferred to Intel right quick.
Ad for the chipset debacle...I am really curious to see if we ever learn of the real reasoning on Intel's side for pushing such a lawsuit in the first place.
If the trajectory of the technology path was already setup to essentially make obsolete the opportunity for third-party chipset makers anyways then why would Intel care if Nvidia pissed away resources making southbridge chipsets for another decade and selling them for a buck? There was no money to be made for Intel by Intel making this move to block NV from producing QPI/DMI chipsets.
So what was Intel's motivation to make the move to block NV? I can't help but wonder if Intel is concerned that if NV had an established right to produce QPI/DMI chipsets and they were to somehow finagle their way into securing an x86 license then Intel would be looking at the prospects of NV releasing their own x86 compatible CPU's capable of operating on Intel's own platform (drastically reducing the barrier to entry for Nvidia should they try and make an entry into the x86 marketspace).
Remember this was a HUGE deal for Intel and AMD back in the Socket 7 days, Intel was quite incensed at the fact that everybody and their brother (from IDT to Cyrix to AMD) could produce a x86 cpu that could be dropped into a socket 7 mobo and leverage the pre-existing infrastructure that lowers the cost per mobo in that scenario.
So I am thinking, certainly can't rule it out, that just maybe the deal here with Intel caring to shut-off Nvidia's access to an already withering and dying product market is really a move to ensure they don't have to deal with Nvidia releasing CPU's that can be dropped into X58/P55 (or future generations) motherboards in a few years
should NV come by an x86 license somehow in the meantime.
(how could they secure such a license? it could easily be a matter of being forced by the legal system as a matter of anti-trust resolution...consider how the DOJ required both Intel and Samsung to source the Alpha processor when Compaq bought DEC...these things happen, it is quite plausible)
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