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Nvidia Firmly Denies Plans To Build a CPU

Posted by timothy on from the this-time-we-mean-it dept.

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."

15 of 123 comments (clear)

  1. Inaccurate headline by TheRaven64 · · Score: 5, Informative

    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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  2. Anyone Surprised? by Underfoot · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Is anyone actually surprised that the CEO is denying this? Even if the rumors were true, letting news out to market about it would give Intel time to prepare a response (and legal action).

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    1. Re:Anyone Surprised? by morgan_greywolf · · Score: 5, Informative

      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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    2. Re:Anyone Surprised? by AKAImBatman · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Is anyone actually surprised that the CEO is denying this?

      Not at all. As you say, he would have denied it even if NVidia WAS planning a CPU. What actually speaks volumes IMHO, is the vehemence with which he denied it. Any CEO who's cover-denying a market move is not going to close his own doors by stating that the company could never make it in that space. He would give far weaker reasons so that when the announcement comes the market will still react favorably to their new product.

      In other words: stick a fork in it, because this bit of tabloid reporting is dead.

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    3. Re:Anyone Surprised? by Daengbo · · Score: 4, Informative

      Check the URL before clicking.

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  3. Reprogrammable GPU? by Wills · · Score: 4, Interesting

    When hell freezes over, they could release a GPU where the instruction set is itself microprogrammable with open-source design, and then end users could decide whether they want to load the GPU's microcode with an x86 instruction set, a dsp set, or whatever.

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    1. Re:Reprogrammable GPU? by HerculesMO · · Score: 5, Funny

      If hell froze over they wouldn't have to worry about the cooling on their chips.

      I guess that's a plus.

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      The price is always right if someone else is paying.
  4. Focused by Akita24 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Yeah, they've stayed focused on graphics chips, that's why there are so many motherboards with nVidia chip sets .. *sigh*

  5. Just a thought... by darkvizier · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If you're 30 years behind them in their market, and they're 2 years behind you in yours, maybe it's not wise to be "dismissive of the threat" ?

  6. And why not? by geogob · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I wouldn't mind seeing more players in the computer processor industry. The headlines really make it sound like it would be a bad thing. Maybe I'm getting the headlines wrong, but having Nvidia presenting new alternatives to a market almost exclusively owned by Intel and AMD would be interesting.

  7. From 2006 by Alioth · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "A GPU from 2006" sounds a lot like famous last words.

    I wonder if anyone at DEC made comments in a similar vein about Intel CPUs, when the Alpha was so far ahead of anything Intel was making? NVidia's architect should not underestimate Intel, if he does, he does it at his company's peril.

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  8. How nVidia "Survived" by Bruce+Perens · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I think the reason we've survived the other 35 companies who were making graphics at the start is that we've stayed focused.

    3DFx was the first company to publish Open Source 3D drivers for their 3D cards. nVidia sued them, then bought them at a discount, and shut down the operation. So, we had no Open Source 3D for another 5 years.

    That's not "staying focused". It's being a predator.

    Bruce

    --
    Bruce Perens.
    1. Re:How nVidia "Survived" by Rufus211 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      What on earth are you talking about? 3DFx died because it was horribly mismanaged and ran out of money. There were lawsuits, but 3dfx sued NV first in 1998 and then in 2000 NV counter-sued (source). True NV's countersuit was right before 3dfx died, but a simple lawsuit that's gone nowhere in the courts yet doesn't cause a company to go bankrupt overnight.

      Personally I'll believe one of my (ex-3dfx Austin) friend's explanation for their downfall: the fully stocked Tequila bar that was free to all employees. Or there's a whole list of problems leading to their decline on wikipedia.

    2. Re:How nVidia "Survived" by alen · · Score: 5, Interesting

      3dfx's problem was they could never figure out how they sold their cards. they flipped flopped from themselves to having others make the cards like Nvidia does. after so many times no one wants anything to do with you because it's bad for business planning.

      nvidia has had it's current selling model for 10 years and only its partners have changed. if you want to sell video cards you can trust that if you sell cards based on nvidia's chips they won't pull the rug out from under you next year and decide to sell the cards themselves

  9. Re:x86 rumors origin ? by CodeBuster · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Maybe that is where some journalist got mixed and where all this "nVidia is preparing a x86 chip" rumor began?

    This is what happens when technical information is filtered through the brain of a salesperson, manager, or executive. It comes out completely mangled on the opposite side or, even worse, it morphs into something which while technically correct is NOT the information that the non-technical person thought they were conveying (i.e. they have unknowingly modified the requirements specification in a way that is logically consistent from a technical standpoint, but will result in the wrong product being built).