NV to pay $25M to Transmeta for licenses

[nitromullet]

Another thread on this topic was previously locked for getting off topic in a hurry. ViRGE gave his blessing to shangshang to create a new thread, but it hasn't happened yet. I'm personally kind of interested in this, so here's the original post:

Originally posted by: shangshang
http://sanjose.bizjournals.com...daily70.html?ana=yfcpc

A technology that NV licenses
http://www.transmeta.com/tech/longrun2.html

A bit intriguing.

There was a time when Transmeta made low power laptops (saw them at Fry's) but they didn't last long against Intel. I thought Transmeta went bankrupt since. Apparently, Transmeta's technology is still worth something.

If anyone has any more information about Transmeta's technology, and any ideas on how NV might use it I'd like to hear about it.

btw... There is a good wikipedia article about Transmeta that explains more about their x86 emulation than Transmeta's own site here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transmeta

 

[nitromullet]

More info:

http://www.pcworld.com/busines...nsmeta_technology.html

The deal doesn't appear to bring Nvidia closer to building x86 chips that would compete against those of Intel and AMD, a move that has been widely rumored. Although Transmeta has made x86 chips in the past, including Crusoe, this agreement doesn't give Nvidia a license to execute x86 code on its chips

 

[Modelworks]

Transmeta was I think doing quite a bit of low power devices, something Nvidia has had problems with. Right now the king of low power cpu is Via .
I think Nvidia might be eyeing the portables market more now . With the popularity of things like iphone and hand held devices it might would be a good area for them to focus on.
Who knows , maybe Nvidia will come out with their own product brands for retail.

 

[SunnyD]

This has absolutely nothing to do with x86. It has to do with power management. Yes, in a previous post I provided a link - but it was simply an example of ways that NVIDIA could get their hands on an x86 license. This particular deal again has nothing to do with x86. It just shows that they have ties with Transmeta.

 

[nitromullet]

Originally posted by: SunnyD
This has absolutely nothing to do with x86. It has to do with power management. Yes, in a previous post I provided a link - but it was simply an example of ways that NVIDIA could get their hands on an x86 license. This particular deal again has nothing to do with x86. It just shows that they have ties with Transmeta.

Well, that is what Transmeta is saying (see the second post)... Then again, I'd be pretty surprised if NVIDIA or Transmeta would actually come out and say if NVIDIA was looking into Transmeta tech to see if they could apply it to their hardware to effectively emulate the x86 architecture.

 

[SunnyD]

Originally posted by: nitromullet

Originally posted by: SunnyD
This has absolutely nothing to do with x86. It has to do with power management. Yes, in a previous post I provided a link - but it was simply an example of ways that NVIDIA could get their hands on an x86 license. This particular deal again has nothing to do with x86. It just shows that they have ties with Transmeta.

Well, that is what Transmeta is saying (see the second post)... Then again, I'd be pretty surprised if NVIDIA or Transmeta would actually come out and say if NVIDIA was looking into Transmeta tech to see if they could apply it to their hardware to effectively emulate the x86 architecture.

Here's one for you. AMD owns shares in Transmeta. Methinks you're looking at a licensing deal the wrong way here, as that could potentially be a conflict of interest with a shareholder if it extends to x86. Not to mention AMD sells Transmeta's kit... which would be even more of a conflict of interest.

Now I'm not saying that it can't happen, as it is one likely avenue of getting into x86. But VIA is definitely a more appropriate fit for injecting NVIDIA into the x86 market in a hurry.