AMD patents

[ToiletDuck]

I'm a little confused when I think about AMD and their 64bit technology. I heard somewhere that AMD held the patents with the 64bit technology that is used by XP 64bit and the future versions of windows. I know the itanium and others have been around the block but I'm talking about windows usable processors. Is it true that for Intel to be 64bit they have to pay royalties to AMD? Seems like AMD is building up momentum. Taking intel to court for a few things here and there and growing in the server market. Just curious that if AMD has poor sales for the 64bit OS coming up that they might still get royalties from Intel.

 

[Avg]

They don't get royalties from Intel, that is due to a agreement they made a long time ago before I knew anything about computers, anyway that means that stuff made for the x86 cpu arch is shared by the two companies. Anyway I know someone will be able to explain it better then I can.

 

[hsmagnet]

I'm a little confused when I think about AMD and their 64bit technology. I heard somewhere that AMD held the patents with the 64bit technology that is used by XP 64bit and the future versions of windows. I know the itanium and others have been around the block but I'm talking about windows usable processors. Is it true that for Intel to be 64bit they have to pay royalties to AMD? Seems like AMD is building up momentum. Taking intel to court for a few things here and there and growing in the server market. Just curious that if AMD has poor sales for the 64bit OS coming up that they might still get royalties from Intel.

Intel and AMD have a patent cross license agreement.......LINK

 

[Gnufsh]

In addition, AFAIK there are windows versions for the Itanium, they're just not terribly popular.

 

[ToiletDuck]

really I've never heard of a windows for the itanium. What's it called? Every now and then I see an itanium system for cheap I always wanted to benchmark one.

 

[max_clock]

All I know is that XP64 does not work with P4 CPUs (at least for now)

 

[Silver]

Kind of falls in line with Intels sse2/3 instructions checking for genuine Intel prior to implimenting sse2/3 instructions. Ref FAH. No sse2/3 for AMD as it is not genuine Intel.

 

[mjw21a]

Kind of falls in line with Intels sse2/3 instructions checking for genuine Intel prior to implimenting sse2/3 instructions. Ref FAH. No sse2/3 for AMD as it is not genuine Intel.

I'm afraid I don't understand what you meant by this. Could you please explain a little?

 

[Avg]

I'm afraid I don't understand what you meant by this. Could you please explain a little?

Intel made a compiler where whatever it compiled would check for a genuine Intel before using SSE2 or SSE3 I'm not sure, so if there was a AMD cpu it wouldn't use those instructions, Intel claims they didn't put that on purpose and has promised to fix it.

 

[>HyperlogiK<]

really I've never heard of a windows for the itanium. What's it called? Every now and then I see an itanium system for cheap I always wanted to benchmark one.

I know there were a few versions of Windows 2000 for itanium, it may only have been 'Advanced Server' and 'Datacenter' though. Windows XP Pro for Itanium was canned, although I heard that there was or is a beta lurking somewhere in the murky world of FTP servers. There are also 'Advanced Server' and 'Datacenter' versions of Server 2003 for Itanium.

I was considering getting an Itanium system just to play with, and looked into getting a copy of windows for it, but I gave up as they seem almost impossible to find.

 

[mjw21a]

Intel made a compiler where whatever it compiled would check for a genuine Intel before using SSE2 or SSE3 I'm not sure, so if there was a AMD cpu it wouldn't use those instructions, Intel claims they didn't put that on purpose and has promised to fix it.

Yeah, but from what I've seen a third party developer came across it and requite the section of the compiler which checks for the CPU's manufacturer. He's got the patch for the compiler on his website. Now everything that supports SSE, SSE2 & SSE3 gets code compiled for it.

Here's the Inquirer link: http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=24574

And here's the developers website where you can download the patch: http://www.swallowtail.org/naughty-intel.html

Apparently all he did was remove the two lines Intel had in there which caused to to check whether it was an Intel CPU or not.

 

[DanIdentity]

All I know is that XP64 does not work with P4 CPUs (at least for now)

Ugh, what?

XP64 is fully compatible with P4 6xx and Pentium 8xx CPUs. Any Intel CPU which has EM64T supports XP64.

 

[mjw21a]

Ugh, what?

XP64 is fully compatible with P4 6xx and Pentium 8xx CPUs. Any Intel CPU which has EM64T supports XP64.

Thats was my impression also.....

 

[>HyperlogiK<]

i think the x86-64 version of redhat/fedora had some problems with EMT 64 though.