Nvidia to Make X86 CPU !?!
Nvidia’s rift with Intel is now out on the public battlefield and it is really heating up. Despite recent denials by their CEO, Nvidia’s latest shocking comments at the Morgan Stanley Technology Conference in San Francisco yesterday revealed that it has plans to enter the x86 processor market in the next two to three years!
In a Q&A session at the conference, Nvidia’s Michael Hara, senior vice president of investor relations and communications, was asked when Nvidia would want to get into the microprocessor business. Hara said that “the question is not so much I think ‘if’; I think the question is ‘when’.”
“I think some time down the road it makes sense to take the same level of integration that we’ve done with Tegra,” said Hara. “Tegra is by any definition a complete computer on a chip, and the requirements of that market are such that you have to be very low power, very small, but highly efficient. And so in that particular state it made a lot of sense to take that approach, and someday it’s going to make sense to take that same approach in the x86 market as well.”
Listening further, Hara pointed out that Nvidia’s x86 CPU would be mainly targeted at smaller system-on-chip platforms. He said, “If you look at the high-end of the PC market I think it’s going to stay fairly discrete, because that seems to be the best of all worlds.” Clearly Nvidia is aiming for the MID and netbook-notebook markets.
Hara revealed that the combination of Intel’s Atom platform and Nvidia’s Ion are good enough for now, but that Nvidia might be looking at their own CPU in two or three years. “There is no question it is on our mind”, he stated.
The big problem for Nvidia is that it doesn’t have an x86 license from Intel to produce its own x86 CPUs. Some of us have long ago suggested that Nvidia was probably considering buying or allying with VIA to purchase its SIS processor division, although these speculations were later denied by VIA.
This is a very interesting and important development. We will keep our readers informed of the latest news. Feel free to share what you think about Nvidia making their own x86 CPU in our ABT forums.
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