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Fun fact: the AMD64 patents have expired, with AMD-V patents expiring this year, so there really isn't a need for an x86 license to do anything useful. All tha

Fun fact: the AMD64 patents have expired, with AMD-V patents expiring this year, so there really isn't a need for an x86 license to do anything useful. All that's still protected is various AVX instruction sets, but those are generally used in heavily optimized software, like emulators and video encoders, that tend to be compiled to the specific processor instruction set anyway.

sylware 9mo ago
As far as I can remember, it is not only a "patent" issue. It seems there are other legal mechanisms. That said, I would not use a x86_64 CPU without AVX nowadays.
- dlcarrier 9mo ago
  As far as intellectual property protections go, You wouldn't be able to copy the layout of an old AMD or Intel processor copyright infringement, not that anyone would want to, because it wouldn't be cost effective to use the exact same process decades later. There's no trademark protection, as AMD was unable to register the x86-64 trademark (https://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=76032083 https://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=76032083) Other than protections against industrial espionage, that exhausts all forms of intellectual property rights in the US.
  - kens 9mo ago
    The microcode is protected by copyright; see NEC Corporation v. Intel Corporation.
    - dlcarrier 9mo ago
      Microcode is specific to a given implementation, so if you make your own x86 implementation, it's not going to run AMD's or Intel's microcode unless you go out of your way to make it do so. NEC didn't infringe Intel's copyright, because their processor ran different microcode than Intel's, and NEC won that lawsuit.
      - sylware 9mo ago
        Allright, the ISA itself is probably protected under some copyrights(+patents), which in the US last for ~one century (cf Disney). In the end, nobody sane would try its luck, better go for something non "IP-locked". Aka RISC-V, not to mention that for a modern implementation RISC-V is more friendly.
ksec 9mo ago
I would love to see an Open Source, free to use x86 CPU design.
- dlcarrier 9mo ago
  There's an open-source 80486 project, called ao486, but I don't know of anything now modern.

sylware 9mo ago

As far as I can remember, it is not only a "patent" issue. It seems there are other legal mechanisms. That said, I would not use a x86_64 CPU without AVX nowadays.

dlcarrier 9mo ago
As far as intellectual property protections go, You wouldn't be able to copy the layout of an old AMD or Intel processor copyright infringement, not that anyone would want to, because it wouldn't be cost effective to use the exact same process decades later. There's no trademark protection, as AMD was unable to register the x86-64 trademark (https://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=76032083 https://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=76032083) Other than protections against industrial espionage, that exhausts all forms of intellectual property rights in the US.
- kens 9mo ago
  The microcode is protected by copyright; see NEC Corporation v. Intel Corporation.
  - dlcarrier 9mo ago
    Microcode is specific to a given implementation, so if you make your own x86 implementation, it's not going to run AMD's or Intel's microcode unless you go out of your way to make it do so. NEC didn't infringe Intel's copyright, because their processor ran different microcode than Intel's, and NEC won that lawsuit.
    - sylware 9mo ago
      Allright, the ISA itself is probably protected under some copyrights(+patents), which in the US last for ~one century (cf Disney). In the end, nobody sane would try its luck, better go for something non "IP-locked". Aka RISC-V, not to mention that for a modern implementation RISC-V is more friendly.

ksec 9mo ago

I would love to see an Open Source, free to use x86 CPU design.

dlcarrier 9mo ago
There's an open-source 80486 project, called ao486, but I don't know of anything now modern.