Nvidia to announce x86 chip next week
THE HOT RUMOR going around IDF is one that we discussed a long time ago when Nvidia bought Stexar: that the company will do an x86 part. The background whispers say that the part will be announced next week at Nvision, but we don't see that happening.
As we said here and here, Nvidia's men in white coats certainly have the brainpower to do it, but they also most certainly don't have a license to sell such a part. Nvidia may have the arrogance to attempt such a thing while hoping to prevail in court, but I can't see how they would be stupid enough to believe they have a realistic chance of winning that fight.
The problem NV has is that both major x86 players have a lock on the technology, and they don't want any new players in the mix. VIA certainly has a nice part with the Nano, but they barely got out under the threat of a lot of legal fighting, and Nvidia certainly doesn't have the x86 patent leverage VIA has. NV is basically locked out unless Intel and AMD both decide to be magnanimous, and we would not recommend holding your breath waiting for this to happen.
That leaves the lawsuit option open, and again, it is hard to imagine them being that self-destructive. Any attempt to enter the market without a license would bring down Intel legal on them like flying monkeys blackening the sky. It would get ugly. Really ugly. Expensive too.
So, in the end, the rumors fly, and there might be an attempt to try. Bad rhyming poetry aside, I can't see how it would slide. The chances are slim to none. But... who knows, next week, we just might see one.
And that is enough poetry and speculation for one day. µ
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...make Jen Sun a dull boy. That man can be frightening when he's in a corner, so I wouldn't put it past him.
Given the difficulty of doing X86 verification and the suites of historic tests that extend back more than a decade at the 3 x86 companies - I would be _very_ surprised to see someone jump into the market who hasnt been doing x86 dev. for some time.

In addition, when upstarts in the CPU industry happens - there is usually significant "buzz" about projects going on, and I suspect an upstart x86 would create a giant "sucking sound" of x86 logic& verification engineers + x86 architects. This hasnt happened.
*scratches head* wasn't the whole licensing thing around buses, x86 instructions aren't copyrighted. Are they ?

IMHO these are great additions to the existing NV chippery, nothing else. A great larrabee-equalizer, go CUDA !
Apparently most of the big name Stexar guys went back to Intel. On top of that what was left were set to work on chipsets for Nvidia.
...another article containing useful information, yet Charlie can't leave out his negative views of nVidia. Grow up.
up the good work Charlie!
NV do an X86 CPU? Why? For who? Right now, Besides problems with consumer confidence in their mobile G84-G86 parts (which are experiencing widespread failures), They have to deal with evangelizing software developers (particularly games developers) in supporting such a platform. Not to mention getting Microsoft on on board to support it. I don't think it's going to happen but if by chance it does, I will not be a "tester" for such a product. I'm sticking with AMD, thanks.
heres some specs, notice 40 sps' within integrated chip & elaborate Crosssfire :

780GXAMD 790 GX core-logic supports various AMD processors with HyperTransport bus, contains ATI Radeon HD 3300-series (RV610) DirectX 10-supporting graphics core clocked at 700MHz that has 40 unified shader processors, supports SidePort Memory and also features ATI Avivo HD as well as universal video decoder (UVD) units that decode and post-process high-definition video available on Blu-ray discs and HD DVDs.



In addition, the new 790GX chip supports Hybrid CrossFireX technology to boost performance of built-in graphics core with ATI Radeon HD 2400- or 3400-series graphics cards as well as features two PCI Express 2.0 controllers to enable ATI CrossFireX technology in 
Mellow Graphics controller & Dual Snake Handler as well,for todays TOP Scores.3n'1.
drashek
You're just making stuff up now, aren't you?
I am no fan of AMD/ATI, but they do seem to have an advantage now. The CPU/GPU marriage that Intel and NVidia tried and said, "we can do better than the other guy". Intel makes great CPU's but lets face it, their graphics suck. Nvidia has great GPUs, but they don't have a CPU base to stand on their own, they must use Intel or AMD.
AMD bought ATI so they won't be seeing the issues Intel or NVidia see. They make their own CPUs and GPUs and now they will be able to integrate the CPU/GPU even tighter than the competition.

I think Intel needs to quit the graphics market, and NVidia should not bite more than it can chew and stick with GPUs only. Then those two can get together and try not to overlap each other and take on the AMD/ATI union.

Tangent: I knew Apple switching Macs to Intel processors and Microsoft switching their XBoxes to PowerPCs was just the beginning... I feel like I am taking crazy pills or like I am in Bizarro World. Regardless, Steve Jobs is the devil in every parallel universe.
http://investor.transmeta.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=326749
"The agreement grants to NVIDIA a non-exclusive and fully paid-up license to all of Transmeta's patents and patent applications"

So yeah, this article seems credible.
http://investor.transmeta.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=326749
"The agreement grants to NVIDIA a non-exclusive and fully paid-up license to all of Transmeta's patents and patent applications"

So yeah, this article seems credible.
this could happen if Nvidia bought VIA (or just the Centaur assets)...
I have never really been impressed by Intels technology as well as their lawyers have protected their technology, they have done a amazing job.
If you look at past court cases against AMD you can see that the only thing that has kept Intel so well a head is their ability to protect the x86 technology.
This has always been a huge crime against consumers as we have always paid for it.

Both ATI and Nvidia have long said they are more complex then Intel, Don't you guys ever wonder how other companies like Nvidia can build chips with twice the amount of transistors then Intel, and its not even 'cheating' with half the die size being just cache?

Don't you wonder why programs like Badaboom can encode a DVD 10 times faster then Intels latest quad core stuff after all these years and these GPUs weren't really even designed for it?

If there is one thing the tech sector needs is the government to force fairness into Intel like they did with MS. AMD would love a break as well. AMD's debt is at a all time high and while we have gotten used to AMD being around you should be very very prepared to say good bye to them as companies with huge debts are falling over due to the increased costs of funding these massive debts. Corporate loans are almost always more expensive then home loans in case you didn't know.


I would like to point out that the now defunct (?) TransMeta company made an "X86" compatible that wasnt x86 but a fast emulator on a VLIW core. And before that it was Digitral and their x86 emulator on Alpha CPU which compared well to same era pentium chiplets. 

As someone said above, its most likely to be about bus licenses, but with hypertransport and HT to PCI-E bridges, Nvidia already has what it needs except the CPU imho.
Since Nvidia knows the future will be tough with Larrybarry and Fusion on the horizon, and since it takes time to set up shop, I think they already have something in the works with VIA. If not buy out, since the times are tough, at least licensing agreement. Maybe tweaked Isaiah on steroids- most of the Taiwanese foundries can do it if the design is simple enough and with 40nm within a year they can be in the game real soon. Knowing Nvidia, they will squeeze the life out of the silicon- it will have a few times higher TDP, but who wants 25w parts anyways...Bundle it with some re branded VIA chipsetery with the lamented SLI bridge and do 2 PCIe x16 on ITX form factor...
Too bad I was daydreaming.
Transmeta has an OS that can emulate x86 code from their in house processors with a 90% efficiency ratio.

If Nvidia had some programmers tweak the program to run with a graphics core.......

Well lets just say don't take this lightly, Imagine a GTX200 as the processor and as the GPU
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