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Yeah, if Apple tried to emulate Intel's ISA they'd very likely get sued. https://www.forbes.com/sites/davealtavilla/2017/06/09/intel-puts-microsoft-and-qualcomm

• jsjohnst 9y ago
  Except isn't X86_64 ISA technically property of AMD, not Intel? I know some of the later stuff (SIMD / AVX / SSE / etc) is Intel, but technically I think they could leave that off and still be successful assuming that would be all that's needed to not be infringing (which I don't know if that's the case or not).
  • monocasa 9y ago
    It's x86_64 is so obviously inspired by 32/16-bit x86 that practically speaking, it's patented heavily by both.
• Vogtinator 9y ago
  Software emulation is fine (otherwise QEMU would be pretty dead), it's just hardware accelerated emulation and actual HW implementations of the ISA that Intel does not like.
  • monocasa 9y ago
    There's no real case law on that, unfortunately. And Intel has been making claims that they could start to litigate. https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/06/09/intel_sends_arm_a_shot_across_bow/ https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/06/09/intel_sends_arm_a_s...
    • lightedman 9y ago
      I know the x86 instruction set up to at least the 486 has had its patents expire. Intel wouldn't win on every claim.