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Nvidia Firmly Denies Plans To Build a CPU
Barence writes "A senior vice president of Nvidia has denied rumours that the company is planning an entry into the x86 CPU market. Speaking to PC Pro, Chris Malachowsky, another co-founder and senior vice president, was unequivocal. 'That's not our business,' he insisted. 'It's not our business to build a CPU. We're a visual computing company, and I think the reason we've survived the other 35 companies who were making graphics at the start is that we've stayed focused.' He also pointed out that such a move would expose the company to fierce competition. 'Are we likely to build a CPU and take out Intel?' he asked. 'I don't think so, given their thirty-year head start and billions and billions of dollars invested in it. I think staying focused is our best strategy.' He was also dismissive of the threat from Intel's Larrabee architecture, following Nvidia's chief architect calling it a 'GPU from 2006' at the weekend."
nVidia are building a CPU, a Cortex A9 derivative with a GPU on-die and a load of other nice features. The summary states that they're not building an x86 CPU, but this is not what the headline says.
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I don't get the legal action part. Is the x86 architecture patented by Intel? Even if it is, wouldn't the patent have expired by now? After all, its more than 30 years old. Do AMD, VIA etc. pay licensing fees to Intel for building processors using the x86 architecture? If so, why cant NVidia?
Yes. Various pieces of parts of the x86 architecture that have been developed within the last 20 years (noteably, stuff related to the IA32 architecture of the 386, 486 and Pentium and later lines) are all still under patent.
Patents filed before June 8, 1995 get the greater of 17 past the patent grant date or 20 years total, whichever is greater.
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