Screw the tech forum: Windows 8 officially coming to ARM, Nvidia designs its first CPU (an ARM chip)

[onodera]

Goddamnit Google we don't need more incompatible ebook stores, just make a ****ing Kindle app.

Also, there's Calibre for making your ebooks compatible with all your devices.

[DaShi]

Goddamnit Google we don't need more incompatible ebook stores, just make a ****ing Kindle app.

Maybe we just need more compatible ereaders.

[Asher]

Intel to pay Nvidia $1.5B over the next six years for access to its patents.

They confirmed that future Intel processors can embed Nvidia GPUs, instead of Intel's custom one.

http://apolyton.net/showthread.php/194444-Screw-the-tech-forum-Windows-8-officially-coming-to-ARM-Nvidia-designs-its-first-CPU-%28an-ARM-chip%29

Intel/NVIDIA bombshell: look for NVIDIA GPU on Intel processor die
By Jon Stokes | Last updated about an hour ago

Intel and NVIDIA have announced a six-year, $1.5 billion dollar technology cross-licensing deal that marks the end of a long patent dispute between the two chipmakers. On a conference call this afternoon, NVIDIA representatives described the agreement as a way to extend each company's access to the other's technology.

Intel will pay NVIDIA $1.5 billion over the next six years for access to its patent portfolio, which includes its GPU and supercomputing technology. In addition to the cash, NVIDIA will also get access to parts of Intel's patent portfolio, including patents covering microprocessors and chipsets. However, the deal excludes proprietary Intel x86 designs, and some other areas like flash memory.

If this sounds like a massively big deal for both companies and for the PC industry as a whole, that's because it is.

On the Intel side, NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsuan confirmed that Intel could use the licensing agreement to produce a Sandy Bridge successor with an on-die GPU based on NVIDIA technology.

"The cross-licensing agreement allows Intel to integrate NVIDIA technologies and those that are covered by our patents into their CPUs, such as Sandy Bridge, for example," said Jen-Hsuan. "And a cross-license allows us to build processors and take advantage of Intel patents for the types of processor we're building—Project Denver, Tegra, and the types of processors we're going to build in the future."

As for the fabled NVIDIA x86 project, Jen-Hsuan definitively shut that down once and for all, and he did so multiple times.

"We have no intentions of building x86 processors," he stated, before explaining that Project Denver represents the future of processor efforts at NVDIA. "Our intention is to capitalize on the growing popularity of ARM processors... We've always felt that building yet another x86 processor when the world is a-flood with them is a pointless exercise." NVIDIA wants to build "the processor of the future," he said.

Jen-Hsuan repeatedly pointed to the 2004 cross-licensing agreement that NVIDIA entered into with Sony for the development of PlayStation 3 technology as a direct precedent of today's Intel deal. "The Sony agreement has generated more than $500 million in royalties," he said, which makes the Intel deal already three times larger.

"[The Sony deal] is a very similar thing to what we're doing with Intel. There's a lot of products that Intel would like to make that would include our technology and vice versa."

One of the products that NVIDIA will not be making as a result of the settlement is an Intel-compatible chipset. Jen-Hsuan made it clear that the company has stated that it has no plans to produce any more Intel-compatible chipsets, and despite settling the DMI bus licensing dispute that shut NVIDIA out of the Intel chipset market, the GPU maker is sticking to its guns.

With today's announcement coming on the heels of the Consumer Electronics Show, it's clear that the past seven days have been as huge for the PC and microprocessor industries as any in recent memory.

[OneFootInTheGrave]

there can be only one

so we will eventually have ARM for low power and Intel + Nvidia for everything else, looks that way more likely than ever right now.

[Asher]

Correction!

http://arstechnica.com/business/news/2011/01/intelnvidia-bombshell-look-for-nvidia-gpu-on-intel-processor-die.ars

Correction: NVIDIA wrote in to tell us that our original headline was not accurate. An NVIDIA spokesperson said, "Licensing a technology is different than incorporating an entire processor. The settlement provides Intel with access to our IP and patents, such as Sandy Bridge which already uses NVIDIA technology. The license enables Intel to extend that model for the next 6 years."

Also, I deleted the following text from the article: "On the Intel side, NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsuan confirmed that Intel could use the licensing agreement to produce a Sandy Bridge successor with an on-die GPU based on NVIDIA technology." It looks like NVIDIA's stance is that there's already NVIDIA IP in the Sandy Bridge IGP, because Sandy Bridge's GPU infringes on NVIDIA patents. This wrinkle wasn't at all clear from the announcement or the call—at least, it wasn't clear to me.

[Jon Miller]

The important bit is that there will be low power x86 chips with decent graphics.

JM

[Sir Og]

There is a low power x86 chip already on the market. AMD's Zacate.

There will be competition now which is good for us.

[Asher]

There is a low power x86 chip already on the market. AMD's Zacate.

Zacate are 18W, not that low power.

Atoms (Pineview with integrated graphics) are 6.5-13W (the 13W is dual-core).

[OneFootInTheGrave]

while in other news

http://techreport.com/discussions.x/20221

AMD ousted it's CEO...

my prediction - AMD will be acquired/or what is left of it, within 3 years.

A shame only that they acquired ATI at the time, as ATI had a chance to make it standalone at the time...

[Asher]

Yes, it's highly likely AMD will be acquired by ATIC, just like their manufacturing spinoff (Global Foundries) did. ATIC is a mega-rich Abu Dhabi investment company who has the money to acquire AMD and is rumoured to be interested in taking on Intel.

Rumour has it Dirk was asked to leave AMD because he wasn't on board with the idea of selling the company. It certainly wasn't his performance that got him sacked, as he did great things for AMD.

[Sir Og]

Zacate are 18W, not that low power.

Atoms (Pineview with integrated graphics) are 6.5-13W (the 13W is dual-core).

JM talked about low power with decent graphics...

[Jon Miller]

The Macbook Air gets decent graphics out of a Core2 Duo. One of the assus machines gets decent graphics out of an atom. Both use a Nvidia based graphics solution.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_CPU_power_dissipation

The reason that the i3s don't get decent graphics is that there is no Nvidia graphics solution. I guess that they, like the Zacate, are 18W.

I don't know much about the Zacate, however, 18W is considerably higher power than the Intel 5-13W.

JM

[Asher]

JM talked about low power with decent graphics...

It depends what you want.

Zacate still isn't good enough for gaming, but Intel integrated are fine for netbooks/nettops. So what's the point of Zacate? That's probably why it's basically DOA.

Not to mention the next generation Intel integrated (the one in Sandy Bridge) is far better than the last, and the Atoms are going to be refreshed very, very shortly with it.

[Jon Miller]

One of the Asus machines has a Nvidia Ion.

The macbook airs have a 320M.

JM