NVIDIA Could Release Its Own CPUs In The Near Future

Darren Hodgson

2020-09-16 08:54

I think this is interesting. More competition is better for everyone: more choice and better pricing. That said, I am not sure I would consider buying a first-gen CPU from NVIDIA but maybe when they've matured to the 2nd or 3rd? Why? Well, being new to the CPU market there are bound to be bugs and issues with the initial design that will be picked up on by reviewers and no doubt NVIDIA will take on the comments to make a better future product. It's like AMD, Ryzen Zen1 was good but Zen3 is likely to a much, much better product such that I will almost certainly be buying an AMD 4000 CPU next year to replace my ageing i7-4770K. This will be the first time I have used an AMD CPU since the early 2000s as I've always found Intel to mkae the superior CPU. Not now though as I feel Intel have stagnated releasing CPUs on a dated manufacturing node at high prices with each one requiring a new motherboard and chipset. Heck, they don't even support PCI-e 4 as far as I am aware.

#5830331

asturur

2020-09-16 09:12

Just to be clear, they can't make x86 cpus. They can make just arm cpus. They can make a new platform not cpus for the computers as we are used now. No retro compatibility with current software.

#5830333

nevcairiel

2020-09-16 09:17

As the article states this will most definitely be server CPUs first. Server software is far more likely to be available for ARM processors natively quite quickly as the hardware becomes available and more wide-spread.

#5830356

Caesar

2020-09-16 09:59

One of my biggest dream and wished for christmas....since i was young...

#5830358

Andy Watson

2020-09-16 10:13

I wonder what the timescale is likely to be, surely it must be 2022 at the earliest?

#5830361

Excalibur1814

2020-09-16 10:20

No doubt that nVidia will eventually make great products... but they will charge you LOTS of $$$$ for it. Lots and lots.

#5830363

asturur

2020-09-16 10:24

Andy Watson:

I wonder what the timescale is likely to be, surely it must be 2022 at the earliest?

They can make they own cpu as soon as the buy is done, the day after, with nothing new on the tech side ( arm 8.x ). There are already arm server cpus, and desktop arm cpu ( chinese market ), is just a matter of what they want really do.

#5830382

cryohellinc

2020-09-16 11:28

Good. The more competition the better. I think a fully ARM-based laptop can be quite insane.

#5830384

undorich

2020-09-16 11:46

anyone remembering the nforce disaster ? ^^ what are they trying to achive ? full spectrum dominace ?

#5830385

Ne1l

2020-09-16 11:47

asturur:

Just to be clear, they can't make x86 cpus. They can make just arm cpus. They can make a new platform not cpus for the computers as we are used now. No retro compatibility with current software.

Not quite... Microsoft released the Surface Pro X - which has a custom ARM CPU and it runs x86 (32-bit) apps. So half way there already.. Nvidia still own the Transmeta IP, Intel paid them to not continue trying to use it (as part of the IP lease a while back)... that agreement has expired now. Let's see if they try to bundle x86 emulation into their custom CPU's.

#5830387

Ne1l

2020-09-16 11:54

undorich:

anyone remembering the nforce disaster ? ^^ what are they trying to achive ? full spectrum dominace ?

Why was it a disaster? From what I recall, Nvidia release bleeding edge specs on their boards with loads of overclocking tweaks. Intel freaked out because it couldn't dictate what features Nvidia could and couldn't included and therefore wouldn't allow Nvidia to have a bus license for future CPU's.

#5830390

Astyanax

2020-09-16 11:57

Caesar:

One of my biggest dream and wished for christmas....since i was young...

Can we turn b ack time and change history so we're all using nvidia athlon cpu's.

#5830392

Ne1l

2020-09-16 11:58

Darren Hodgson:

I think this is interesting. More competition is better for everyone: more choice and better pricing. That said, I am not sure I would consider buying a first-gen CPU from NVIDIA but maybe when they've matured to the 2nd or 3rd? Why? Well, being new to the CPU market there are bound to be bugs and issues with the initial design that will be picked up on by reviewers and no doubt NVIDIA will take on the comments to make a better future product. It's like AMD, Ryzen Zen1 was good but Zen3 is likely to a much, much better product such that I will almost certainly be buying an AMD 4000 CPU next year to replace my ageing i7-4770K. This will be the first time I have used an AMD CPU since the early 2000s as I've always found Intel to mkae the superior CPU. Not now though as I feel Intel have stagnated releasing CPUs on a dated manufacturing node at high prices with each one requiring a new motherboard and chipset. Heck, they don't even support PCI-e 4 as far as I am aware.

Buying ARM kind negates the 'being new to the CPU market' besides Nvidia have made some of the best ARM CPU's (in the Shields) for a looong time..

#5830394

Ne1l

2020-09-16 11:59

Astyanax:

Can we turn b ack time and change history so we're all using nvidia athlon cpu's.

I had a Duron 600 overclocked to 1GHz with a solid copper (motherboard bending) CPU cooler.. them were the days!! 🙂

#5830399

Quetzall

2020-09-16 12:06

Ne1l:

Why was it a disaster? From what I recall, Nvidia release bleeding edge specs on their boards with loads of overclocking tweaks. Intel freaked out because it couldn't dictate what features Nvidia could and couldn't included and therefore wouldn't allow Nvidia to have a bus license for future CPU's.

Yes, I remember that Nvidia was having a dominant position in chipsets until Intel decided to integrate the northbridge in the CPU. That killed the Nforce.

#5830403

Astyanax

2020-09-16 12:14

Quetzall:

Yes, I remember that Nvidia was having a dominant position in chipsets until Intel decided to integrate the northbridge in the CPU. That killed the Nforce.

thats not what killed the nforce, Nvidia had a license to create chipsets compatible with intel boards Intel took nvidia to court to stop them from making an x58 equivalent chipset for Nahalem/Westmere (First Gen Core i7) deciding that the license didn't cover QPI/DMI data links to the IOH. The case was settled, with nvidia being compensated financially and given access to a limited set of intels patents, and the terms of the license being defined as NOT covering QPI/DMI.

#5830406

moo100times

2020-09-16 12:14

I feel that outisde of server implementation, this will be a further push into SoC and mobile computing provision rather than the desktop space. Will likely overlap with other avenues of their work such as AI, self driving vehicles, and their new industry robots.

#5830408

Mineria

2020-09-16 12:21

Quetzall:

Yes, I remember that Nvidia was having a dominant position in chipsets until Intel decided to integrate the northbridge in the CPU. That killed the Nforce.

Nforce killed itself

#5830412

Lily GFX

2020-09-16 12:24

I hope they can make RTX IO/Direct Storage backward compatible somehow if they design the whole system :> Either way looking forward to see what Nvidia/ARM can do^^

#5830419

asder

2020-09-16 12:50

Well, they already make CPUs... The Jetsons have them , also the Nintendo switch has another ...