Originally posted by: Viditor
Originally posted by: the kernel
I think you are missing the point by a country mile on this. The cross licensing agreement between nVidia and Intel at the very least CAN be interpreted such that nVidia has the right to make i7 chipsets. So why did nVidia give up before there is a legal resolution on the matter? The answer is of course obvious: Clarkdale and Arrandale.
Since Intel and Nvidia are currently in court over this very question, I can't say I agree with your assumption...
However Nvidia has flat out said that they are stopping all development for Nehalem based products until the case is resolved next year, so I think that there is also the possibility that they just want to avoid being sued.
The only difference between the Dales and current IGPs from Intel is that the Dales are on-die (but it's basically the same chip)...let's face it, Intel graphics suck wind.
Certainly Apple isn't about to use Intel graphics on their systems, so they will either have to use discrete graphics, or just avoid the "i" series altogether.
One other point...remember that Intel's idea of "acceptable" in graphics isn't always the same as everyone else...
There's still the ongoing class action suit against Intel because their "Vista Ready" motherboards couldn't even run Aero graphics on the operating system...