NVIDIA Countersues Intel Over License Conflict

MojoKid writes "After Intel filed a lawsuit against NVIDIA late last month, alleging that a four-year-old chipset license agreement the companies signed did not extend to Intel's future generation CPUs with 'integrated memory controllers' (like Nehalem), NVIDIA decided to fight with fire. Today, NVIDIA filed a countersuit in the Court of Chancery in the State of Delaware against Intel Corporation for breach of contract. Furthermore, the action also seeks to terminate Intel's license to NVIDIA's valuable patent portfolio, which no doubt is reverberating with some level of intensity in the halls of Intel."

Comments

Why would Intel be so greedy?

[tjstork]

This strategy doesn't make sense. If nVidia makes chipsets for new Intel parts, doesn't that bolster Intel's brand? It's like, when you go to McDonald's, and get Heinz Ketchup rather than restaurant brand, it makes the whole place seem a tad bit classier. Having an Intel chip parked on a product with a high end nVidia graphics card bolsters the reputation of that chip considerably. Attempting to block that product to try and grab a few more chipset sales seems rather short sighted. Greed and stupidity go hand in hand.

Re:Why would Intel be so greedy?

[Anonymous Coward]

Intel just seems to be making enemies out of everyone these days. First AMD and now Nvidia. If they aren't careful, they could very well end up isolating themselves.

It reminds me of this quote:

"When I am the weaker, I ask you for my freedom, because that is your principle; but when I am the stronger, I take away your freedom, because that is my principle"
--Louis Veuillot

Re:Why would Intel be so greedy?

[Yamamato]

Intel just seems to be making enemies out of everyone these days. First AMD and now Nvidia. If they aren't careful, they could very well end up isolating themselves.

Intel doesn't need either AMD or NVIDIA. You look at most notebooks today and they will have all integrated Intel stuff without anything from either of those either companies. So I doubt they are going to be hurting much. In fact, NVIDIA needs Intel far more than the other way around. AMD isn't going to use NVIDIA chipsets or graphics cards and if Intel drops them, then NVIDIA is pretty much lost from the loop.

Re:Why would Intel be so greedy?

[Anonymous Coward]

Nvidia is the market leader when it comes to graphics, physics and GPGPU hardware. Intel might not need them in the niche market of netbooks, but they do need them and their patents when it comes to the actual desktop and laptop computers out there.

Similarly, Intel needs AMD if they expect to be able to continue using x64 technology. Otherwise they are going to need a lot of luck trying to push Itanium as a replacement desktop product.

Re:Why would Intel be so greedy?

[Lord Ender]

I think INTC is scared. They have never been able to replicate or even come close to producing an NVDA GPU. People need faster and faster GPUs; but CPUs? Many are fine with the weak Atom. Any suggestion of NVDA producing CPUs must scare INTC witless.

Re:Why would Intel be so greedy?

[EvilRyry]

What fantasy world are you living in? Although antitrust laws may say the government _should_ do that, they almost certainly won't.

Re:Why would Intel be so greedy?

[morgan_greywolf]

Intel doesn't need either AMD or NVIDIA.

I disagree. Intel is behind the 8-ball with Larrabee. They're promising things already delivered by NVidia and AMD and I'm pretty sure they had to license NVidia patents to release Larrabee.

It's widely grokked that current Intel graphics chipsets suck for gaming or high-performance computing and the only way they are going to compete with NVidia and AMD in this arena is with Larrabee.

Petulent children

[clickclickdrone]

Is it me or are companies getting more like petulent children these days? It's either lawsuits over things like this or they're playing 'your mom'. It's all very tedious.

Larabee

[Brit_in_the_USA]

Nvidia is going for gold. They want to make a x86 chip and target the laptop/netbook space with an ION+CPU on a chip before AMD or Intel do something similar. Intel probably needs cross licencing of lots of Nvidia graphics patents for Larabee and there huge market share of integrated graphics chips. Intel needs SLI support to compete with AMD and crossfire in the interim. I think Nvidia is in a strong position here.

Re:Larabee

[blahplusplus]

Stockholders of the losing companies won't think so. Competition drives prices down but it also reduces profits, amd and intel got into mad price wars, and AMD hit Nvidia in the chin with the 4870 with DDR5 and a smaller die size, while nvidia is scrambling to move inventory of rather lackluster performing cards when compared against the 4870 and even the previous generations almighty 8800 series.

The 8800 series was nvidia's grand slam and neither the 4870 nor the GT200 are really that great when all games run just fine on the 8800 (or or simply the G92 core).

Intel is reacting out of fear that nvidia is closing in. With GPU's they've reduced the significance of CPU power as the main driver of performance upgrades and therefore can no longer command premium prices.

Intel has been really lazy when it comes to providing for their own platform (thinking in terms what are the killer apps for the PC), IMHO it would be good if Nvidia hits a home run developing x86 with integrated graphics, as well as their own cpu. Nvidia seems to understand the fact that applications like games are important to the platform or else it will lose relevance long term and people will move to consoles. This has one thing I've hated about Microsoft's schizophrenic policy towards the PC, they can't seem to be able to deal effectively with an "open box" like the PC in terms of software sales because of piracy, and hence the Xbox and Xbox 360 .

Larabee better be something special by the time it is released or else Intel will have wasted a lot of time and effort on a part that doesn't compete.

Lastly, I think Intel is clueless that the PC is in desperate need of a revamp in terms of how common upgrades (like video cards, hard drives, etc) are installed, to remove the geek factor. I would love it if people could just plug shit into a slot (along the lines of how we slide flash memory cards into flash slots) and have been thinking about redesigning the PC case and motherboard slots as well to make the openness and upgradability of a PC more user friendly and accessible easier, retard proof designs.

Re:Larabee

[scientus]

agreed, right now the competition is hot, and the consumers are doing quite well. Good bickering is good, and profits are also quite good, as long as it doesn't prevent any of these big guys from doing business.

Lastly, I think Intel is clueless that the PC is in desperate need of a revamp in terms of how common upgrades (like video cards, hard drives, etc) are installed, to remove the geek factor. I would love it if people could just plug shit into a slot (along the lines of how we slide flash memory cards into flash slots) and have been thinking about redesigning the PC case and motherboard slots as well to make the openness and upgradability of a PC more user friendly and accessible easier, retard proof designs.

While there is a possibility ntel could sink its own ship, (see above post) this thing is actually in quite good shape. Bus speeds do change, so things cant always be backwards compatible AND faster; but in general differnt stuff is very compatible. AMD is making a stride that 3 generations of CPUs will fit in previous generation motherboards, albeit with slower memory pipelines. Also, with SATA and usb it really is just plug it in computing, and with no restart. It costs more, but servers have hot swap RAM, and also many motherboards have hot swap PCI-E cards.

For the most part, this criticism of upgradeability is without merit: simply because development is moving really really fast and therefore a 3-year-old computer cant use anything but PCI cards, and USB devices (also IDE HDs work fine) of and old one doesnt mean there is a lack of interoperability, this is largely just cause everything is getting so much better, cheaper, and faster. The parts that are no longer inter-operable are so obsolete and slow that there is no point is continuing to using them in a new machine.

Intel must be really confident in its new GPU

[grapeape]

First they go after AMD threatening to revoke their x86 agreements (shooting themselves in the foot and threatening their own cross licensing) now they go after Nvidia? Someone should really remind them that their own GPU's are sub par and that for the average home user processor speeds have been "good enough" for years now leaving upgraded graphics cards and memory as practically the only visible speed boost. At this point its arguable that Intel needs AMD and Nvidia far more than they need Intel,

patents

[Lord Ender]

I know I'm preaching to the choir, but this is a good example of where litigation is getting in the way of innovation. Consumers and the economy would benefit most if these companies could compete for the best products rather than trying to shut each other down in the courts.

Meanwhile....

[maugle]

AMD is watching from the shadows, hands clasped, whispering "Good, good."

My guess

[someone1234]

He did it on purpose.
INTC is not the same as Intel.
INTC a greedy bunch of shareholders.
Intel is a company with great products.