nVidia To Enter The CPU Market

http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/05/24/nvidia-two-cpu-lines

Interesting stuff it's like INTEL invading ATi/nVidia live of expertise and nVidia fighting back ATi probably won't as there with AMD now.

yes, very neat.

It is known that GPU architecture is way more complicated and powerful than any CPU.

I believe that NV surely has the know how of creating a monster CPU of great proportions if they know how to build the fastest GPUs available, which again is far greater in complexity than any CPU on the market today.

Does Nvidia have an x86 license?

more competition in general = win though

handhelds / laptops are going to be seeing massive jumps in technology capability in the coming years. Integrated graphics are going to become monumentally better

My 'Rainless' prediction for 2008 is coming true: Intel dabbling in GPUs and nVidia dabbling in CPUs. I don't forecast serioous competition first run through. But each party will learn a heck of a lot, I hope it garners more intense competition.
I remember some quote: "War breeds innovation".

NV is doing cpus!
http://www.infoworld.com/article/08...5/27/Nvidia-to-release-CPU-at-Computex_1.html
not what i would call a good cpu to use but then agian it gives nv options. i dont see the arm cpu being on the same level as Atom, though i could be wrong.

Everyone has to realize that Intel has BILLIONS of dollars to through at R&D. AMD, (and now ATI) and NVIDA, and even VIA all put together could not hope to match Intel in processor development.

That being said, ATI and Nvidia produce some awe inspiring single-point precision power. Add a decent math-coprocessor (read: integrated FPU) and you got the makings of some serious firepower.

HOWEVER, to retort a previous poster, what we really need is a next-gen OS, not something x86, which is thirty year old technology. We have multiprocessor, multipipe technology. Why are we still using thirty year old software design?

For all the money Intel has, I'm not impressed. Look how long it took three tick-tocks to get From Prescott, Prescott 2M, CederMill along with Banias, Dothan, Yonah to Conroe. AMD did it in 2, Barton and ?Opteron to Athlon 64 Winchester and Italy to Venice and Denmark. AMD did not have to reinvent it's wheel, just make it roll a little better as Athlon XP was already over the P4s of it's time. In the long run Intel did make a stronger leap which was the result of pooling it's internal resources from killed projects. Marketwise, Intel needs to frick up and drop the ball for our benifit. This would put them back in creative mode as opposed to dominance mode. Penryn is a Dominance chip just as the last AMD products before Barcelona. AMD's dominator broke. at 65nm, but is now fixed but too late to battle. On the creative side, AMD has no plans released showing something that will counter the dual threading of Intels next Ticktock.

I still have money on Nvidia merging with National Semiconductors, as they hold an x86 license thats no transferable but if the companies merged it'd give Nvidia the license they need.

Shelnutt2 said:

I still have money on Nvidia merging with National Semiconductors, as they hold an x86 license thats no transferable but if the companies merged it'd give Nvidia the license they need.

Click to expand...

What are National Semiconductor's production capability like?

Shiggity said:

What are National Semiconductor's production capability like?

Click to expand...

well seeing a national sell's many different products from voltage regulators to audio amps,audio preamps. i would think if they switch all of there plants to just cpu's they would be ahead of amd,purly a guess. since national from what i can find doenst sell cpu's. as to how they have a x86 agreement is beyond me right now.

Evilsizer said:

well seeing a national sell's many different products from voltage regulators to audio amps,audio preamps. i would think if they switch all of there plants to just cpu's they would be ahead of amd,purly a guess. since national from what i can find doenst sell cpu's. as to how they have a x86 agreement is beyond me right now.

Click to expand...

It was back in the early 90's that they got the license, as they were partnered with Intel and fabed stuff for Intel. I can't find specifics right now, but the wiki has good general overview. Cyrix got into trouble for producing x86 without a valid license for x86, in 97 when National bought them, they point was moot. Then when Cyrix was sold to via, you might remember a few years back Intel had threaten via and said the the x86 license stayed with National and didn't transfer with the purchase of Cyrix.

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

Does the X86 license have some sort of time limit on it, where after a certain amount of time everyone can start using it?

Requiring this license is getting to the point of being monopolistic and should be looked into imo.

then that is the odd part as i recall minor info about VIA buying Cyrix. That doesnt explain then how VIA got a X86 agreement. i have been doing some digging but coming up empty... i would make sense though the agreement was for Cyrix not national, even though owned at one time. Cyrix was actually "producing" the cpu not national, they there just the "we have money,here."

shig,
the license doesnt expire, intel had said companies pay for that. just like when you buy a pc with windows xp/vista. now the patent intel had to file i thought was run out by now. unless im just miss understanding how one company can hold the rights to a tech for so long.

LMAO, "Hey intel stick this in your socket"

http://www.fudzilla.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=7650&Itemid=66

Edit; Follows thread below, sweet.

I started a thread about Tegra in the Nvidia section. I figured more people would see it there.

http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=564664