Plausible: Nvidia Working on x86 CPU
For the second time in less than a week, graphics chipset maker Nvidia is at the center of a rumor that could turn the tech sectors upside down.
Last week, the California-based GPU maker was rumored to be pushed out of the console graphics market by none other than Intel. This week, it seems as if the tables have turned, with Nvidia reportedly working on an x86 CPU.
According to The Inquirer, the GPU powerhouse is trying to produce an x86 chip. While the legal implications may stop anything concrete dead in its tracks, that probably wouldn't stop Nvidia from producing the hardware and worrying about a financial settlement later. When Nvidia started collaborating with Stexar back in 2006, many were predicting that some sort of CPU would be the result. It's been over two years, so the market may finally be privy to the fruit of Nvidia's labors.
"Word reached us a bit ago that Nvidia is definitely working on an x86 chip and the firm is heavily recruiting x86 engineers all over Silicon Valley," says The Inquirer.
While producing an x86 CPU would certainly put a wrench in the works for Intel and AMD, the move seems to be off message for Nvidia. For the past year or so, Nvidia has been pushing its GPGPU, or General Purpose Graphics Processing Unit, concept. This rumored Nvidia CPU would completely go against that grain.
While Nvidia may not be able to snag a license from Intel, there may be another option. If Nvidia collaborated with a company that already possesses an x86 license, VIA for example, you may see an Nvidia-branded CPU yet.
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I love the inq's word getting out there, substantiated or not
I do think, however, that the x86 thing could work nicely for nVidia in any number of ways.
For instance, they could go after Larabee, since a simple x86 instruction core is not too far removed from the modern shader units.
I doubt any x86 to come from NVIDIA would be intended to compete with Intel and AMD on the desktop (they'd be crazy and fail), however this could be very good for specialist uses and niche markets, such as their Ion platform.
I got the impression that Intel may not be too happy with Ion, especially as they've always come across as "Atom is bundled with our graphics chipset period", so perhaps the use of Atom was more a proof of concept for a contextually-powerful graphics system in such a small form factor, then Ion 2 runs with their own CPU (or a joint venture with VIA's Nano).
This feels like Apple snapping up that chip company - specialist or small form factor computing (such as the Mac Mini).