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Nvidia denies x86 chip plans

Published on 9th November 2009 by Gareth Halfacree

Rumours that Nvidia is looking to launch an x86 chip of its very own have been denied by the company's CEO, Jen-Hsun Huang.

Rumours that graphics specialist Nvidia is looking to compete head-on with chip giant Intel with the launch of an x86 compatible processor have been denied by the company's CEO.

According to CNet, Jen-Hsun Huang, Nvidia's chief executive officer, denied the rumours that his company is looking to branch out into the central processing unit marketplace with the creation of an x86 compatible chip - rumours that were fuelled by his company's recent creation of a satire site poking fun at x86 market leader Intel.

According to Huang, the company is most definitively not looking at the x86 market as the future: during an interview last week he stated that "Nvidia's strategy is very, very clear. I'm very straightforward about it. Right now, more than ever, we have to focus on visual and parallel computing."

Huang also said that his company will also be concentrating on the mobile sector, with work proceeding on "getting [Nvidia] GPUs into the lowest power platforms we can imagine and driving mobile computing with [them]."

While that doesn't mean that Nvidia isn't looking to tweak Intel's nose - with Huang going on to say that "GPUs in servers for parallel computing, for supercomputing - and cloud computing with our GPU," it's clear the company believes it can make inroads on Intel's high-performance computing market - it appears that anyone who was looking forward to a challenge to the dominance of Intel and AMD in the x86 marketplace will have to look elsewhere.

Do you believe that Huang's rejection of an x86 play rings true, or is he simply trying to sneak up unawares on Intel? Would you by an Nvidia x86 chip if one existed? Share your thoughts over in the forums.

14 Comments

Discuss in the forums Reply

nicae 9th November 2009, 10:32

Would NVIDIA x86 chips have bump material problems too?

tohdom 9th November 2009, 11:27

yeah, i am confided that nvidia's x86 cpu will be good solution.
An i think it is smart for NVidia to hide the development of x86 at this early stages.
It would me stupid to announce "yeah, CPU is important, we will be creating them in the future, meanwhile, stick to the Intel's CPUs"

Psytek 9th November 2009, 11:44

I think another player in the cpu market would be good for high end consumers. AMD hasn't been competitive at the high end for a few years now.

l3v1ck 9th November 2009, 11:53

I though that Nvidia lacks an X86 license from Intel. Without it, it would be illegal for them to make X86 CPU's.
I can see Nvidia sticking to two areas:
1) GPU's and parallel processing
2) ARM based ultra low powered systems, including an eventual "system on a chip" design.

Autti 9th November 2009, 11:55

Why is he holding a Emmy? x86 isn't exactly the best system for the type of computing Nvidia is interested in anyway.

tad2008 9th November 2009, 14:21

Quote:

Originally Posted by l3v1ck
I though that Nvidia lacks an X86 license from Intel. Without it, it would be illegal for them to make X86 CPU's.
I can see Nvidia sticking to two areas:
1) GPU's and parallel processing
2) ARM based ultra low powered systems, including an eventual "system on a chip" design.

GoodBytes 9th November 2009, 14:37

X86 requires to have a license form Intel... Nvidia won't do that. They will release a true x64 CPU, so they only have to made a licensing deal with AMD which will be MUCH more easy.
That, or they are working on another Tegra chip. Or interestingly enough, they create a new CPU, and will have to try to convince Microsoft to make Windows support it. :)
My guess is on the true x64 CPU, as it's more realistic.

l3v1ck 9th November 2009, 16:52

Quote:

Originally Posted by GoodBytes
My guess is on the true x64 CPU, as it's more realistic.

I'd have thought the opposite was true. MS are trying to get Windows onto mobile low powered devices. That means they're more likely to make an ARM version of Windows than a whole new architecture. There's more market growth potential.
We all know how popular Itanium was when Intel tried it. MS already has the desktop market sewn up, why waste money on a new OS for a market segment you already dominate.

KayinBlack 9th November 2009, 16:57

Well, they nabbed a ton of Transmeta devs, and Transmeta's Crusoe was a VLIW processor with an onboard x86 decoder, so it ran x86 as emulation. Depending on how they did it, either they could end up with quasi-x86 compatible GPUs or a hybrid architecture CPU that can do some interesting things.

nVidia's gearing up for something, we just have to determine what.

Matticus 10th November 2009, 01:56

However they enter the market it is going to be a good thing, more competition is always good for us consumers. I just hope when they release new cpus its not because someone in the marketing department jumbled a few letters and numbers around.

TWeaK 10th November 2009, 20:12

Quote:

Originally Posted by GoodBytes
They will release a true x64 CPU, so they only have to made a licensing deal with AMD which will be MUCH more easy.

As I understand it, AMD's x64 ownership refers to an extension to the x86 instruction list. Without x86, x64 is useless. It would have to be a completely new 64-bit instruction set, which would require completely new support from OS makers. The ARM CPU is the most likely CPU platform Nvidia will go with.

GoodBytes 10th November 2009, 20:28

Isn't AMD 4-bit extension, called AMD64?!

tohdom 11th November 2009, 14:13

yeah, i read somewhere about x86 emulation too. They do not need a licensee if they gonna do their own cpu and just emulate x86 commands for the x86 software. Hopefully, that is the case :)

thehippoz 11th November 2009, 17:34

will it be based on the 200 series? XD

autti than emmy is for his two night stay at the golden palace