4 ms·

Intel will not buy Nvidia. More like Intel can't. The deal would never go through all the checks. Intel doesnt need Nvidia and Nvidia cannot make a CPU part. At

by lyime 17y ago

Intel will not buy Nvidia. More like Intel can't. The deal would never go through all the checks. Intel doesnt need Nvidia and Nvidia cannot make a CPU part. At-least not an x86 CPU part (licensing).

gvb 17y ago
Setting aside the antitrust issues... Intel needs nVidia because it (arguably) cannot make a GPU part (the ones it has are slow, Larrabee is a bust). nVidia is (arguably) less dependent on Intel since it has standalone GPUs as well as low power integrated ARM+GPUs. This makes nVidia well positioned in the low power mobile world, a place where Intel just started to aspire to. In "An Inconvenient Truth: Intel Larrabee story revealed" http://www.brightsideofnews.com/print/2009/10/12/an-inconvenient-truth-intel-larrabee-story-revealed.aspx http://www.brightsideofnews.com/print/2009/10/12/an-inconven... (discussed on HN yesterday http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=980927 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=980927), skip down to the section "GPU is dead" and the war with nVidia. In it, the author asserts Intel started a war with nVidia before it had real ammunition (Larrabee) and is in a world of hurt as a result. His speculation is "...on Intel giving an x86 license to nVidia in exchange for cross-license patent, but only time will tell how the situation will develop." If true, that would give nVidia a x86 CPU in addition to their ARM CPU and graphics GPU. Pretty interesting thought.
- joshu 17y ago
  Didn't Intel sell the ARM division to Marvell or something?
  - gvb 17y ago
    Yes, there is irony in the world today. Intel acquired StrongARM (renamed XScale) with an ARM CPU license from DEC. IIRC, they had a development license which meant that they (now Marvell) could modify the instruction set. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XScale http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XScale So Intel had an unusually permissive license to a very popular, very low power CPU architecture and they sold it (June 2006). A few years later, they are struggling to recreate that low power capability in their x86 architecture.
    - blasdel 17y ago
      You're right only in that they shouldn't have sold it -- they should have sat on it. They can't let ARM or any non-x86 architecture win in a PC-replacement market.
Keyframe 17y ago
hm, intel tries hard to make a decent GPU for years now and fails miserably every time. AMD bought ATI, why intel shouldn't pass checks to buy nvidia then? Nvidia seems a bit lost in their direction and they are using TSMC's fabs, where they could use intels if there were an acquisition. Both companies have superb engineering talent. Also, there was always this feud between AMD/ATi vs intel/NVIDIA rigs amongst geeks, might be a consolidation on that turf also. I like that idea.

by lyime 17y ago

Intel will not buy Nvidia. More like Intel can't. The deal would never go through all the checks. Intel doesnt need Nvidia and Nvidia cannot make a CPU part. At-least not an x86 CPU part (licensing).

gvb 17y ago

Setting aside the antitrust issues... Intel needs nVidia because it (arguably) cannot make a GPU part (the ones it has are slow, Larrabee is a bust). nVidia is (arguably) less dependent on Intel since it has standalone GPUs as well as low power integrated ARM+GPUs. This makes nVidia well positioned in the low power mobile world, a place where Intel just started to aspire to. In "An Inconvenient Truth: Intel Larrabee story revealed" http://www.brightsideofnews.com/print/2009/10/12/an-inconvenient-truth-intel-larrabee-story-revealed.aspx http://www.brightsideofnews.com/print/2009/10/12/an-inconven... (discussed on HN yesterday http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=980927 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=980927), skip down to the section "GPU is dead" and the war with nVidia. In it, the author asserts Intel started a war with nVidia before it had real ammunition (Larrabee) and is in a world of hurt as a result. His speculation is "...on Intel giving an x86 license to nVidia in exchange for cross-license patent, but only time will tell how the situation will develop." If true, that would give nVidia a x86 CPU in addition to their ARM CPU and graphics GPU. Pretty interesting thought.

joshu 17y ago
Didn't Intel sell the ARM division to Marvell or something?
- gvb 17y ago
  Yes, there is irony in the world today. Intel acquired StrongARM (renamed XScale) with an ARM CPU license from DEC. IIRC, they had a development license which meant that they (now Marvell) could modify the instruction set. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XScale http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XScale So Intel had an unusually permissive license to a very popular, very low power CPU architecture and they sold it (June 2006). A few years later, they are struggling to recreate that low power capability in their x86 architecture.
  - blasdel 17y ago
    You're right only in that they shouldn't have sold it -- they should have sat on it. They can't let ARM or any non-x86 architecture win in a PC-replacement market.

Keyframe 17y ago

hm, intel tries hard to make a decent GPU for years now and fails miserably every time. AMD bought ATI, why intel shouldn't pass checks to buy nvidia then? Nvidia seems a bit lost in their direction and they are using TSMC's fabs, where they could use intels if there were an acquisition. Both companies have superb engineering talent. Also, there was always this feud between AMD/ATi vs intel/NVIDIA rigs amongst geeks, might be a consolidation on that turf also. I like that idea.