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Speculation that Intel May Buy NVIDIA

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Apr 12, 2001
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Robert Cringely speculates that underneath all tensions, Intel is actually looking to purchase NVIDIA.
Intel had to do something the minute AMD bought ATi. Now with Larrabee gone Intel has no real choice but to buy another company to remain in contention. The only such company available is nVIDIA.
Click to expand...
Cringely admits that it's just a "conspiracy theory" but he lays out why he thinks the move might happen.

Article Link: Speculation that Intel May Buy NVIDIA
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2009/12/08/speculation-that-intel-may-buy-nvidia/
S3

or they could buy S3 off of VIA. the technology there is actually pretty good.
 
Be an interesting turn of events if this came true.

They'd have great potential working together without having to worry about any licensing crap.
 
Techhie said:
Hopefully Larrabee will be based on Nvidia's architectures not Intel's sad GMA line. I might as well solder a saltine to my logic board...:rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Larrabee had nothing to do with the architecture used by the GMA GPUs. It had more in common with the Pentium series of processors from the late 90's. 'Twas essentially design to be a GPGPU that utilized dozens of miniaturized Pentium Pro type CPUS.

I was saddened to hear Intel was shifting gears on Larrabee and suspending the commercial parts... Buying nVidia might be able to give them what they need to further their GPU prospects. Maybe they can combine the technologies of Larrabee and Fermi... Could be quite exciting. But a purchase of nVidia might delay the release of new GPUs from nVidia. AMD badly needs some competition for the 58xx series to encourage them to restore supply and price.
 
I wondering if the resolution of the licensing might get the Nvidia Integrated GPUs stuffed in their place.

Cry uncle and do something that'll benefit both ... however unlikely that would be.
 
Cringely is famously full of sh*t, that's why he got fired from his PBS gig.

His typical MO to pull some pure speculation out of his ass, usually involving a couple of big name companies, and wait for the traffic to arrive.

He is based down in the middle of nowhere, somewhere in the Carolinas I think, and has no credible contacts in the companies he writes about, everyone in the valley considers him a joke.
 
Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry9000/4.6.0.297 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/102)

Mark Stephens is a revisionist whose speculations almost always miss the mark by a mile and a half. Why PBS sent him a check has even Matt Drudge scratching his head in bewilderment.
 
As a former AMD stockholder I can easily say that Intel has nothing to worry about and the NVIDIA purchase is totally unnecessary. Intel already owns the chip market. Who cares?
 
It would be cheaper for Intel to just buy AMD...

Current market values are:
AMD: 6 bl
NVIDIA: 8 bl
Intel: 110 bl
(for comparison - Apple: 171 bl, Microsoft: 263 bl)
 
Intel should just stay out of the GPU market.

In fact they would be better off working with ATI and NVidia on a new high speed port dedicated to GPUs. To put it simply the silicon that has the CPU and the rest of the system on it is no place for a hot GPU. It would be far more contructive using the CPU silicon for the rest of the pheripheral mix. The point here is that you concentrate to much heay in one area. Granted low performance hardware is a different story, but the markets that accept intels integrated GPUs doesn't care anyway.

The other thing is that there are plenty of companies intel could grab. You have NVidia, Matrox, S2, Imagination and possibly a couple of more. Most likely Intel wouldn't integrate a current product, so you go for a design team that knows what they are doing.

Personally I think intel is just playing stupid here and doesn't realize it. It will be a very long time before respectable GPUs can actually be integrated on the same silicon as the CPU. Think about the heat sinks on the latest Nvidia or ATI chips.


Dave
 
you can buy anything you want, however you will not be able to install it. Laptop IGP's are hardwired into the motherboard and CAN NOT be changed...
 
poundsmack said:
or they could buy S3 off of VIA. the technology there is actually pretty good.
Click to expand...

They bought the GMA500 powervr chip - so it wouldn't surprise me if they'd do something as ridiculously silly as your suggestion either :)
 
batistuta said:
It would be cheaper for Intel to just buy AMD...

Current market values are:
AMD: 6 bl
NVIDIA: 8 bl
Intel: 110 bl
(for comparison - Apple: 171 bl, Microsoft: 263 bl)
Click to expand...

The only problem with this one is who is your "supposed second provider", Intel needs AMD alive ... Unicorns, Free markets, I love them :p
 
Makes little sense for Intel to buy NVidia, imo. AMD had something to gain from the purchase of ATI (a second profitable business and some technology) but Intel is already so dominate in the market that they don't stand to gain a whole lot. I could see them come to a deal with NVidia, or another partner, to supply onboard graphics to Intel though.

With the whole NVidia-Intel licensing thing going on, it could be part of that settlement. Buy something like the 9400M off NVidia and rebrand it the X4000 or whatever.

Bummed that they didn't come up with something new with the Larrabee processor(s) is a bit of a bummer, though. Would have been interesting to see a massive parallel CPU in action in commodity computers.
 
so what happened with the rumors of the IGP going back on the CPU, and nvidia making CPU's to compete with intel and amd?
 
I'm sure some interesting and fast technology could be produced. But I doubt that Intel will buy Nvidia
 
boast said:
so what happened with the rumors of the IGP going back on the CPU, and nvidia making CPU's to compete with intel and amd?
Click to expand...

The IGP going on the CPU isn't a rumor. It's coming out in a couple months. By the end of 2010, Intel will have switched basically all their IGP systems to have the IGP in the CPU (when a system has an IGP; obviously high end CPUs won't bother with an IGP.)

The still-rumor part is nVidia developing a CPU.

And Larrabee (the "technology") isn't going away. Larrabee (the "commercial graphics card") isn't even going away completely with this announcement; it's just being delayed to rev 2 of the technology. In short: Intel realized that by the time their first product would actually hit the market, it would be impossible to sell as a graphics card; so they're going to wait for rev 2 (or possibly later,) for the graphics card variant.

Rumors have it that the technology side was being developed for more than just use in graphics cards, so those other uses will likely still be produced, even with rev 1.
 
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