Well patents are definitely important to protect your investment but what I think is a little silly is the patent of ideas where they never actually utilize/produce what was patented.
There should be different patent restrictions on unrealized/never produced or used patents vs realized/utilized patents.
It would definitely be a disaster if anybody could simply copy anything they wanted unrestricted without consequences.
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On October 11, 2006, Transmeta announced that they had filed a lawsuit against Intel Corporation for infringement of ten Transmeta U.S. patents covering computer architecture and power efficiency technologies.
The complaint charged that Intel had infringed and was infringing Transmeta's patents by making and selling a variety of microprocessor products, including at least Intel's Pentium III, Pentium 4, Pentium M, Core and Core 2 product line.
On October 24, 2007, Transmeta announced an agreement to settle its lawsuit against Intel Corporation. Intel agreed to pay $150 million upfront and $20 million per year for five years to Transmeta in addition to dropping its counter-claims against Transmeta. Transmeta also agreed to license several of its patents and assign a small portfolio of patents to Intel as part of the deal.[17]
Also from wikipedia
Quote:
On August 8, 2008, Transmeta announce that it had licensed its LongRun and low-power chip technologies to Nvidia for a one-time license fee of $25 million
LongRun was based primarily on aggressively reducing the clock frequency and voltage supplied to the processor, in order to reduce active power consumption.
Despite persistent rumors, Nvidia's chief executive says the graphics chip supplier is not working on an Intel-compatible chip.
CEO Jen-Hsun Huang was asked about the possibility of Nvidia coming up with its own x86 (Intel-compatible) chip technology during in an interview Thursday, after the company reported strong third-quarter earnings. A recurring rumor has it that Nvidia is developing a chip that would be able to run the same software that runs on all Intel- and AMD-based PCs worldwide.
"No," he said when asked if there was any truth to the rumor. "Nvidia's strategy is very, very clear. I'm very straightforward about it. Right now, more than ever, we have to focus on visual and parallel computing."
Huang also dismissed the the possibility of Nvidia using Globalfoundries as a manufacturing partner--typically referred to as a "foundry" or a "fab"--for its chips, after saying in the earnings conference call that Nvidia's longstanding foundry partner--Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC)--was not allocating it enough capacity.
"Globalfoundries is an AMD fab, right?" he said. "Globalfoundries is AMD's fab. Our strategy is TSMC."
Nvidia should make their own ISA so they can have general purpose processors. They surely have the technical know-how to accomplish that. They could do their own thing like Sun and IBM.
Hail fellow warrior albeit a surat Mercenary. I Hail to you from the Clans, Ghost Bear that is (Yes freebirth we still do and shall always view mercenaries with great disdain!) I have long been an honorable warrior of the mighty Warden Clan Ghost Bear the honorable Bekker surname. I salute your tenacity to show your freebirth sibkin their ignorance!
Am I the only one to remember that there were some rumors that G80 could handle basic x86 instructions?
Okay, Google is your friend: INQ
I think I read it somewhere else, but this is the only article I could find now.
If I recall correctly there were also some articles in March 09 that NVidia is working on a CPU for ultra-portable notebooks/netbooks.
Take it with a grain of salt, it's all speculation as long as NVidia doesn't announce anything.
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Nvidia should make their own ISA so they can have general purpose processors. They surely have the technical know-how to accomplish that. They could do their own thing like Sun and IBM.
Yeah they could do that. And they could even get Linux ported over. And then what? Why go through all that trouble instead of licensing an ARM or VIA core?
Yeah they could do that. And they could even get Linux ported over. And then what? Why go through all that trouble instead of licensing an ARM or VIA core?
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Am I the only one to remember that there were some rumors that G80 could handle basic x86 instructions?
Okay, Google is your friend: INQ
I think I read it somewhere else, but this is the only article I could find now.
If I recall correctly there were also some articles in March 09 that NVidia is working on a CPU for ultra-portable notebooks/netbooks.
Take it with a grain of salt, it's all speculation as long as NVidia doesn't announce anything.
The first is hyperbole RISC systems can usually handle CISC code with the right compiler so in principle G80 could emulate x86 functionality.
Your second point is the ARM based Tegra.
I think nVidia is keeping it's mouth shut until the results of the Intel Antitrust case are settled, hopefully making it easier for them to acquire an x86 license so they can do a Windows compatible system-on-chip or integrate x86 cores into their GPUs.
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