Nvidia and Intel rumored to settle chipset suit

[tviceman]

It's Charlie again, so some of it may be in question, but basically Intel is giving Nvidia $1 billion, almost exactly a year since Intel also gave AMD $1 billion.

Read it here: http://www.semiaccurate.com/2010/11/12/intel-said-settle-nvidia/ and notice there is absolutely very little to no Nvidia bashing coming from Charlie. I think after his predictions about the gtx580 being a paper launch, predicting a bad Nvidia earnings report, and coupled with AMD now being the ones falling behind launch schedules, he's doing himself a favor by keeping his own personal opinions out of a rumor report.

 

[Keysplayr]

Depending on what patent rights Intel aquired (if that's indeed true) then I guess good news for Nvidia.

 

[Lonyo]

http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/mainbo...dia_We_Are_Not_Building_Chipsets_Anymore.html

NV also says they aren't going to make more chipsets, so presumably it's some sort of payoff?

 

[Keysplayr]

http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/mainbo...dia_We_Are_Not_Building_Chipsets_Anymore.html

NV also says they aren't going to make more chipsets, so presumably it's some sort of payoff?

At this point, they probably aren't even interested in making chipsets for desktops any longer. Laptops and mobile devices I could see, but not desktops.
IMHO.

 

[StrangerGuy]

At this point, they probably aren't even interested in making chipsets for desktops any longer. Laptops and mobile devices I could see, but not desktops.
IMHO.

They are pretty much dead on the laptop chipset front anyway. Besides, Nvidia killed their own reputation after the whole bumpgate incident.

 

[Mem]

At this point, they probably aren't even interested in making chipsets for desktops any longer. Laptops and mobile devices I could see, but not desktops.
IMHO.

I hope Nvidia do,I never had any problems with their chipsets on motherboards, its always nice to have more choices available.

As to Intel/Nvidia lawsuit well its normal if you look at that over the years , companies like AMD,Intel,Nvidia are always in some sort of lawsuit battle, guess its normal for big companies like these.

 

[Keysplayr]

They are pretty much dead on the laptop chipset front anyway. Besides, Nvidia killed their own reputation after the whole bumpgate incident.

Ah, ok.

 

[GodisanAtheist]

Nv would have to start more or less from scratch with their chipset division as I doubt they retained all of their chipset engineers through the 2-3 year dry spell. They would be coming in against intels own excellent and reputable x58. Nv's real chipset strength was always on the AMD side of things IMO, but we all know how that goes nowadays.

 

[Schmide]

Pardon my french but, give them an x86 license or GTFO.

If Intel gets all these graphics pattens without the trade for the x86, it will tilt everything in their favor.

 

[exar333]

Ah, ok.

Come one keys....I like NV but they screwed the pooch themselves in the chipset market. NV's last chipset that competed with AMD and Intel's offerings was probably on 939(AMD)/P4 (Intel). The only reason anyone bought them after this was for SLI, and those that did paid the price with FSB holes, poor reliability, and overpriced boards. Good riddence to NV chipsets if you ask me, no one misses them.

 

[Gloomy]

If Intel gets all these graphics pattens without the trade for the x86, it will tilt everything in their favor.

How can this happen?

 

[taltamir]

It's Charlie again, so some of it may be in question, but basically Intel is giving Nvidia $1 billion, almost exactly a year since Intel also gave AMD $1 billion.

so.... what do you think nVidia will do with 1b dollars?

 

[tviceman]

Pardon my french but, give them an x86 license or GTFO.

If Intel gets all these graphics pattens without the trade for the x86, it will tilt everything in their favor.

I think if Nvidia wanted an x86 license, it would/could be on the negotiations table and fair game. Insofar is Intel being granted certain licenses that may help them make GPUs, Intel has already demonstrated (failed twice in the past 10 years) exactly how difficult it is to build a good GPU, so even with the licenses it wouldn't mean Intel would suddenly have the know-how to catch Nvidia or AMD in the GPU department, it would just mean they can legally create a GPU.

The same goes for Nvidia if they were to attempt to build an x86 CPU, but with a few slightly interesting twists. First, according to last year's rumors they hired much of the former transmeta x86 engineers, so they already have some personnel with experience creating x86 chips. The second twist is taht Nvidia wouldn't need to compete with Intel in the high end CPU space, they'd probably be more likely to try to compete with AMD's fusion, which is an integrated/low end market.

 

[exar333]

NV is a dick to pretty much every other company and then wonders why they don't play nice. Please. It's funny, Intel and AMD are more cooperative than AMD/NV or Intel/NV and Intel/NV don't really direct compete with each other in many areas.

 

[tviceman]

so.... what do you think nVidia will do with 1b dollars?

According to what Jen Hsun-Huang keeps saying, they want to capture more tablet and smart phone market share. That will become more of a significant focus for them. Of course they're going to keep investing heavily in GPGPU, but they're #1 in this regard and so huge lump sum payout will allow them to acquire more resources to apply in area's that they are still trying to make a name for themselves in (tegra, tegra, tegra).

Personally in my own little fantasy world I'd love to see them come to market with a fusion-type x86 competitor, but I don't think that's going to happen. If Intel suddenly had a 3rd competitor in their CPU lockdown, that would be incredibly beneficial to consumers.

 

[taltamir]

i don't see nvidia competing in the x86 market... I do see them competing in the CPU market.
x86 isn't the most efficient architecture, its benefit is market penetration and compatibility with software, but it is fairly old and dated... intel themselves tried to replace them with a superior platform (aka, itanium) not too long ago.
nvidia can leverage a more efficient platform in those areas where it matters most (aka, tegra). Maybe from there "grow" into the laptop and ultra cheap desktop market.

 

[happy medium]

I hope they use the money to lower gtx580 prices.

http://www.semiaccurate.com/2010/11/12/intel-said-settle-nvidia/

 

[Powermoloch]

=O same here

unlikely tho...they gonna pay off some dividends luls !

 

[AnandThenMan]

Good for Nvidia. Anytime Intel gets slapped down for their predatory and anti-consumer behaviour I'm happy.

 

[tviceman]

Ahem.... http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2119803

 

[taltamir]

I hope they use the money to lower gtx580 prices.

Why should they? are they a charity?
They provide a product to make money, they sell it in a price point that is ideal to that...
Lowering price increases sales, Increasing price lowers sales.
Net profit = price * profit per card
profit per card = sale price - manufacturing price.

They should sell the cards at whatever amount maximized net profit... having more money will not and should not make them lower prices...

I hope they use that money to invest in newer and better technologies though.

 

[formulav8]

Even if nVidia were given a x86 license today it would be YEARS before you could even smell it.

 

[AnandThenMan]

Even if nVidia were given a x86 license today it would be YEARS before you could even smell it.

Unless they've been secretly working on one for awhile now. :sneaky:

 

[Meghan54]

I hope they use that money to invest in newer and better technologies though.

Or maybe find a new fab partner?

 

[happy medium]

Or maybe find a new fab partner?

Im for this. :thumbsup: