nVidia might be making an x86 CPU

[Ancient76]

http://www.tweaktown.com/news/11340/nvidia_might_be_making_an_x86_cpu/index.html

The rumor mill is in full swing today as there are rumblings that nVidia is working on an x86 based CPU.

nVidia, who entered into a state of almost open warfare with Intel over the need for a CPU over a GPU, seems a very unlikely candidate to make an x86 based CPU. But there does seem to be some evidence pointing to this.

nVidia has been seeking talent in the x86 marchitecture and has been actively recruiting x86 engineers. Issues with this rumor are retty big though, nVidia has no license to make an x86 CPU and are not likely to get one from Intel or AMD. They could opt to have someone else build it for them (like IBM or less likely the new Foundry Company) but that would not stop the lawsuits from flying.

[Absolution]

The whole x86 license thing has never made all that much sense. I can't see how the government puts so much pressure on MS while Intel basically holds the keys to the general processing market.

Here's a basic timeline.
Initially, a quite a few companies with either non transferable/transferable x86 licenses.
Many drop out of making CPUs, not profitable (or sell their semiconductor business, eh IBM basically)
Almost everyone drops out of making CPUs besides AMD/Intel (+VIA)
VIA isn't competitive, basically makes x86 processors for fun these days.
AMD is getting to be not competitive, Intel rules the market place, doesn't want to sign anymore x86 licenses

Considering almost every home desktop pc is running x86 code, how is this not a sort of monopoly? I'm not saying AMD will drop out, but just the fact that if they do, it will make this market very monopolistic.

Sure we could switch to a new architecture, but that is hardly ideal or economical.

[hell_of_doom227]

The best is to make new CPU not around X86 but something else much better. X86 concept is crap. And then have MS build OS around faster CPU...and that's end of Intel. :D

[DansFace]

I really have no idea what I'm talking about here so help me out.
What if nvidia made a only a 64bit cpu? would they still need the license?

[jolle]

The whole x86 license thing has never made all that much sense. I can't see how the government puts so much pressure on MS while Intel basically holds the keys to the general processing market.
They´re not pushing MS to give out the codebase for windows to, so competitors can build their own Windows OSes.

[walterman]

The best is to make new CPU not around X86 but something else much better. X86 concept is crap. And then have MS build OS around faster CPU...and that's end of Intel. :D

Come on man,

Do you want to lose +30y of binaries compatibility ? The compatibility always have been the main advantage of the PCs.

Did you study the x86 architecture ? It has been growing & growing, and today, it has one of the richest instruction set in the industry, and leading FP precision.

And did you heard about the future AVX extensions ? 256 bit registers, non destructive syntax, ...

And you should take a look at the Intel compilers. MS could learn a couple of things about code optimization from them.

[ViN86]

Come on man,

Do you want to lose +30y of binaries compatibility ? The compatibility always have been the main advantage of the PCs.

Did you study the x86 architecture ? It has been growing & growing, and today, it has one of the richest instruction set in the industry, and leading FP precision.

And did you heard about the future AVX extensions ? 256 bit registers, non destructive syntax, ...

And you should take a look at the Intel compilers. MS could learn a couple of things about code optimization from them.

pfft, Microsoft could learn a lot about code optimization from anyone. theirs is practically non-existent.

EDIT: Microsoft, not Intel lol

[avaxdownload]

Wishes ... :)

[lightman]

pfft, Intel could learn a lot about code optimization from anyone. theirs is practically non-existent.

You evidently don't know what you're talking about. ;)

I do simulations all day long, trust me. Intel compilers are *really* good.

[Nutty]

The whole x86 license thing has never made all that much sense. I can't see how the government puts so much pressure on MS while Intel basically holds the keys to the general processing market.

Here's a basic timeline.
Initially, a quite a few companies with either non transferable/transferable x86 licenses.
Many drop out of making CPUs, not profitable (or sell their semiconductor business, eh IBM basically)
Almost everyone drops out of making CPUs besides AMD/Intel (+VIA)
VIA isn't competitive, basically makes x86 processors for fun these days.
AMD is getting to be not competitive, Intel rules the market place, doesn't want to sign anymore x86 licenses

Considering almost every home desktop pc is running x86 code, how is this not a sort of monopoly? I'm not saying AMD will drop out, but just the fact that if they do, it will make this market very monopolistic.

Sure we could switch to a new architecture, but that is hardly ideal or economical.

Its more todo with propritry tech used like, SSE, 3DNOW, X64, MMX etc..
Pretty much all software uses these, so if NV want to make an x86 chip that runs software at a competitive rate, they need to license these technologies from AMD and Intel.

I cant really see Intel wanting to do this though, as it means potentially losing more market share to a 3rd party.

[Ancient76]

Maybe they want to have its own gaming platform? They don't need x86 CPU for that.

And it's possible to execute x86 instructions with some sorth of emulation. Through CUDA for example.

[ViN86]

You evidently don't know what you're talking about. ;)

I do simulations all day long, trust me. Intel compilers are *really* good.

pfft, Microsoft could learn a lot about code optimization from anyone. theirs is practically non-existent.

**** i meant MICROSOFT :rofl

[mullet]

LOL Vin.

[lightman]

**** i meant MICROSOFT :rofl

:rofl :lol2: :D

Thank you, I needed a good laugh. Been a (really) tough day...

[rhink]

Maybe they want to have its own gaming platform? They don't need x86 CPU for that.

And it's possible to execute x86 instructions with some sorth of emulation. Through CUDA for example.

CUDA would suck at running general purpose code... just not enough parallelism, and where there is parallelism, it's not the right kind of parallelism... GPU's are insanely fast, but you have to feed 'em the right kind of code...

[a12ctic]

I really have no idea what I'm talking about here so help me out.
What if nvidia made a only a 64bit cpu? would they still need the license?

Then they'd have something like the Power or Cell chip, both of which can mean very little in the PC spectrum (the old macs/playstations)

[Ancient76]

CUDA would suck at running general purpose code... just not enough parallelism, and where there is parallelism, it's not the right kind of parallelism... GPU's are insanely fast, but you have to feed 'em the right kind of code...

Well, that's logical :)

And i'm saying it's possible. I'm not saying it's efficient. This is just a rumor, and we don't know exactly what they are doing?

[mojoman0]

well considering intel's new larrabee contains a set of x86 cpus combined with a gpu, nvidia is probably also investigating this new architecture. Larrabee is supposed to scale very well up to 48 cores or so if I remember correctly.

[Tho Jo Smale]

What about that whole quantum computing architecture?


What the hell happened to it?

[CaptNKILL]

What about that whole quantum computing architecture?


What the hell happened to it?

Quantum Effects Technology?

It either became or was replaced by Physx.

[nekrosoft13]

nm

[nekrosoft13]

http://hothardware.com/News/NVIDIA-Mulls-Its-Own-x86-CPU/


Copy/paste from another forum:

"Patents are valid for 20 years. The Intel 80386 (i386) was released in 1986, so the patent expired in 2006. NVIDIA can produce an i386 chip, and it will run your favorite Linux distro (compiled for i386). Moreover: if they are making plans for the next 5 or 6 years, they probably can count on the following release dates: - 2009: i486 (introduced in 1989) - 2013: i586 (introduced in 1993) - 2015: i686 (introduced in 1995)"

So basicly Nvidia can make x86 chips.



is that true? Patents Expire?