NVIDIA To License Its GPU Tech 111
An anonymous reader writes "Today in a blog post, NVIDIA's General Counsel, David Shannon, announced that the company will begin licensing its GPU cores and patent portfolio to device makers. '[I]t's not practical to build silicon or systems to address every part of the expanding market. Adopting a new business approach will allow us to address the universe of devices.' He cites the 'explosion of Android devices' as one of the prime reasons for this decision. 'This opportunity simply didn't exist several years ago because there was really just one computing device – the PC. But the swirling universe of new computing devices provides new opportunities to license our GPU core or visual computing portfolio.' Shannon points out that NVIDIA did something similar with the CPU core used in the PlayStation 3, which was licensed to Sony. But mobile seems to be the big opportunity now: 'We'll start by licensing the GPU core based on the NVIDIA Kepler architecture, the world's most advanced, most efficient GPU. Its DX11, OpenGL 4.3, and GPGPU capabilities, along with vastly superior performance and efficiency, create a new class of licensable GPU cores. Through our efforts designing Tegra into mobile devices, we've gained valuable experience designing for the smallest power envelopes. As a result, Kepler can operate in a half-watt power envelope, making it scalable from smartphones to supercomputers.'"
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Notice who gave the announcement?
NVIDIA's General Counsel, David Shannon, announced that...
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Yeah because designing a GPU is not really making stuff. A bit like how writing software is done by lawyers and executives.
This sounds like good news and an obvious step to me. It should lead to smaller and more energy efficient computing devices in the future.
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Intel periodically cuts patent cross-licensing deals with AMD that have the side-effect of bailing AMD out financially. This keeps AMD around as a competitor.
If Intel adopted Apple's "thermonuclear war" attitude, AMD would have been out of business from the legal fees and injunctions long ago. However, if AMD was out of business, then Intel would be a monopoly and that would be bad for Intel.
Intel manages AMD, as best it can, such that AMD gets 20% market share, and no x86 profits to speak of. With "only" 80% market share, Intel gets to keep all of the profitable market segments, with no FTC and DOJ oversight. AMD is left appealing to those who want cheap CPUs.
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That is what Project Denver was supposed to be. This announcement probably confirms that Project Denver is a failure that will never see the light of day. Denver was supposed to be the companies salvation after HPC, Tegra and everything else failed to meet the projections they set with wall street.