Nvidia Licenses out Kepler architecture and future GPU architecture

[GoodBytes]

Nvidia will start allowing to get a license for the Kepler and future GPU architecture from them, allowing other companies to make Nvidia GPUs or improve on, or use it in a specialty.

In other words, much like ARM does for it's ARM architecture processor.

 

Source: http://www.anandtech.com/show/7083/nvidia-to-license-kepler-and-future-gpu-ip-to-3rd-parties

 

Do you think it's a smart move for Nvidia to do this, to get more revenue?

 

[Hyydrah]

That's surprising, since I've always thought of Nvidia being less open to this sort of thing.

[5lay3r]

Lets hope apple wont buy a licence for this and start suing other companies who make similar changes

[felixbearpig]

Very interesting

[felixbearpig]

Lets hope apple wont buy a licence for this and start suing other companies who make similar changes

They can't , licencse don't not equal ownership

[SteepGnomeKing]

I can see partner companies getting this licence and selling some really powerful version of the chips that are already out. This could be interesting.

 

I really didn't think Nvidia would be licencing out their products though. Didn't think that was how they wanted to have their business. But this is a nice change.

[Godlygamer23]

They can't , licencse don't not equal ownership

Correct. It just means you can use it. Much like an OS license. It means you can use it, but you don't really own it.

[1funnygame]

i guess they have there reasons but its very interesting i wonder what will come out of this

[silencerbob]

This is for grid I'm assuming?

[Covalent]

Lets hope apple wont buy a licence for this and start suing other companies who make similar changes

I'm surprised that they haven't done that with ARM yet...

[swifty7]

they're panicking due to AMD''s juggernaut stance.

[GoodBytes]

they're panicking due to AMD''s juggernaut stance.

Not at all. Nvidia makes (and always had), from selling Quadro and Tesla GPUs. While GeForce brings revenues.. it's not a selling factor. Nvidia always works on the big full chip, Tesla, then the cut down version is made as a Quadro, and then a further cut down version: GeForce, pretty much.

If you check Nvidia numbers, you'll see this. Nvidia makes a lot more money selling several thousand dollars graphic card each, in large quantity each year or so, for companies and universities, then selling with low margin, GeForce card.. 1 on average, per customer... yes you have a lot of them, but margin are small.

[Tomislav Matic]

exactly as GoodBytes said. I think it's a good thing to share the tech, let people upgrade your design. They'll still make more money from that, and how knows it could bring us some cool new products.

[Shrubpig]

This could be a good thing, have other manufacturers make better versions of the card to sell at different price points. But, what if one manufacturer makes one huge leap in GPU technology and leaves everyone else in the dust and we see good companies die? I don't know how this would work out if they did do this.

[Kuzma]

Lets hope apple wont buy a licence for this and start suing other companies who make similar changes

I lol'd so hard I smacked my tooth into my knee ._.

[TechFan@ic]

There is something that everyone seems to be missing here,GPU architectures change approximately every 32 months, this means that if any company buys a license for a GPU architecture it will only be able to profit from it for 2 to 3 years maximum, and will have to buy the new license from Nvidia.

According to Nvidia, their most profitable business is the mobile & desktop GPU segment, where most of their revenue comes from, if they allow more competition to enter that segment it will mean less money for them, which is why I think they would have a trick to prevent that.

[GoodBytes]

Actually, a bit more than that... because they'll be able to get it before Nvidia releases the GPU.

Nvidia doesn't release a GPU the minute it is done. Similar to games, they have a spot to wear they think people will buy their GPU, and sometimes puts on the shelf for a bit, while waiting for AMD coming up GPU, to see if it needs tweaking/OC'ing to be at comparable or be faster than AMD offering.

[Box_Of_Rocks]

im thinking ... Onboard GPU on motherboards ... could be nice for HTPC's and small form factor pc's