Thursday, August 7th 2008

NVIDIA Licenses Technologies from Transmeta Corporation

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NVIDIA has achieved an agreement with Transmeta Corporation today, to license Transmeta's LongRun and LongRun2 technologies and other intellectual property for use in connection with NVIDIA products. The agreement grants to NVIDIA a non-exclusive and fully paid-up license to all of Transmeta's patents and patent applications, and a non-exclusive license and transfer of certain Transmeta advanced power management and other computing technologies. Under the agreement, NVIDIA agrees to pay Transmeta a one-time, non-refundable license fee of $25.0 million. The agreement also includes mutual general releases of all claims by both parties. "We are very pleased to have achieved this license agreement with NVIDIA," said Les Crudele, president and CEO of Transmeta. "We believe that this agreement both illustrates the value of Transmeta's intellectual property and technologies to our industry and realizes for Transmeta stockholders an immediate return from the strategic licensure of our intellectual property rights."
Source: NVIDIA

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28 Comments on NVIDIA Licenses Technologies from Transmeta Corporation

#1
jbunch07
so it looks like nvidia is still gobbling up corporations, ha some things never change.
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#2
newtekie1
Semi-Retired Folder
jbunch07so it looks like nvidia is still gobbling up corporations, ha some things never change.
Signing a non-exclusive licensing agreement is a long way off of "gobbling up the company" so stop trolling.
Posted on Reply
#3
jbunch07
newtekie1Signing a non-exclusive licensing agreement is a long way off of "gobbling up the company" so stop trolling.
ouch man, calm down dude. why so serious?

not meaning to troll. this is good for nvidia it seems like they are pairing up with all the right people.
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#4
JoJoe
Glad to see Transmeta doing well.
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#5
Darkrealms
Sorry not familiar with Transmeta. What is Nvidia going to be using of theirs that will help them that much? I got some power management concepts from the article.
(yes, you can call me lazy on this one)
Posted on Reply
#6
robspierre6
As always

As always,no innovations from nvidia.
Just like they bought SLI technology with 3dfx purchase back in 2000.
And now,they are trolling about their physx on gpu like if it was a big deal.
In order to make you buy a high-end nvidia card and a low end cpu they want to convince
people that the physx on gpu is something useful which is BS.

I wonder what nvidia is going to do now about their faulty chips?
Posted on Reply
#7
JoJoe
DarkrealmsSorry not familiar with Transmeta. What is Nvidia going to be using of theirs that will help them that much? I got some power management concepts from the article.
(yes, you can call me lazy on this one)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transmeta
Posted on Reply
#9
newtekie1
Semi-Retired Folder
DarkrealmsSorry not familiar with Transmeta. What is Nvidia going to be using of theirs that will help them that much? I got some power management concepts from the article.
(yes, you can call me lazy on this one)
It seems they mainly focus on low power ICs. Perhaps this will help bring down nVidia's power consumption. Another big thing is that they produce low power x86 processors, or have in the past. Perhaps this is another move for nVidia to break into the CPU business?
Posted on Reply
#10
Bundy
I read on their site they have also signed up NEC, Fujitsu, Sony and Toshiba. It would appear Transmeta have a winner on their hands. Well 25M is a winner in IMO:)
Posted on Reply
#11
DarkMatter
If I am not mistaken, most of AMD's and Intel's power management features were licensed, based on or at least in conflict with Transmeta's patents. It's a big player on the industry, even though they operate below the radar.
Posted on Reply
#12
Darkrealms
JoJoeen.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transmeta
Sigh I was hoping to be lazy and not have to do that. But thanks for the link.
newtekie1It seems they mainly focus on low power ICs. Perhaps this will help bring down nVidia's power consumption. Another big thing is that they produce low power x86 processors, or have in the past. Perhaps this is another move for nVidia to break into the CPU business?
Thanks! That would be great on the power consumption. As far as the x86 licensing, I wonder if that would give them the ability to start working on a GPU integrated CPU ?!?
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#13
R-T-B
Transmeta doesn't technically have a x86 license. Their CPU is basically one giant emulator, translating x86 instructions into their own native VLIW code. It's performance suffers because of this, though power consumption is quite low. I doubt NVIDIA would get anything useful from them such as an actual x86 license.
Posted on Reply
#14
newtekie1
Semi-Retired Folder
R-T-BTransmeta doesn't technically have a x86 license. Their CPU is basically one giant emulator, translating x86 instructions into their own native VLIW code. It's performance suffers because of this, though power consumption is quite low. I doubt NVIDIA would get anything useful from them such as an actual x86 license.
The Intel Atom processor does similar, and it is turning out to be quite popular. Though, I think you are right, in that nVidia isn't really after x86 from them. More likely after power saving features.
robspierre6As always,no innovations from nvidia.
Just like they bought SLI technology with 3dfx purchase back in 2000.
And now,they are trolling about their physx on gpu like if it was a big deal.
In order to make you buy a high-end nvidia card and a low end cpu they want to convince
people that the physx on gpu is something useful which is BS.

I wonder what nvidia is going to do now about their faulty chips?
Other than the acronym SLI, the technology from 3dfx and the technology from SLI, share nothing else, they don't even have the same name. The general idea might have come from 3dfx, but nVidia built the current SLI technology from the ground up. Where do you think the idea for crossfire came from? Do you think ATi just came up with that entirely on its own?

And the PhysX comment is way off. It has NOTHING to do with selling high end GPUs to replace CPUs. The real benefit of PhysX is that when it is actually released, it should work on extremely low end card. Essentially, they are just replacing Ageia's PPU cards, with low end GPUs. Physic on the GPU is far from BS. GPUs do Physics far better than CPUs do. Their architecture is just more suited for the task.

And what does a few faulty chips have to do with this article at all? Oh...I see, you are just trying to troll.
Posted on Reply
#15
R-T-B
The Intel Atom processor does similar, and it is turning out to be quite popular
I'm not saying the concept is flawed, just Transmeta's implementation of it.
Posted on Reply
#16
GSG-9
As said above It is not likely they bought them for x86 processors as they still would not have a license to produce the processors and if I am not mistaken you cannot just go ask for such a license.

I do hope they (Nvidia) are able to improve efficiency with the knowledge and designs than gain.

Transmeta has an interesting font for its logo though, very similar to a certain company :)
Posted on Reply
#17
Mussels
Freshwater Moderator
robspierre6As always,no innovations from nvidia.
Just like they bought SLI technology with 3dfx purchase back in 2000.
And now,they are trolling about their physx on gpu like if it was a big deal.
In order to make you buy a high-end nvidia card and a low end cpu they want to convince
people that the physx on gpu is something useful which is BS.

I wonder what nvidia is going to do now about their faulty chips?
now you're the one trolling. Nvidia physx on the GPU works well and is a TON faster than on a quad core CPU (So you can imagine its a lot faster on slower duals)

no innovations.. how can you innovate if someones already patented it? they PAID for a LICENCE to USE the tech. its not like the bought the freaking company or stole it, stop trolling.
Posted on Reply
#18
GSG-9
I have never seen the word troll on the front page of a tech thread this many times...
Posted on Reply
#19
Wile E
Power User
Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't transmeta sue nVidia for patent infringement?
Posted on Reply
#21
craigo
This is great news....Nvidia seem to be atempting to address many of the things that i do not like about thier products lateley...sharpening thier little green teeth for the next bite at the consumers wallet...good stuff.

Shame we`ll all be runnig 4970x2`s and intel cpu`s.....lol
Posted on Reply
#22
Darkrealms
newtekie1The Intel Atom processor does similar, and it is turning out to be quite popular. Though, I think you are right, in that nVidia isn't really after x86 from them. More likely after power saving features.
The whole x86 thing was my misunderstanding people.
DarkMatterNo, it was Intel who was sued, AFAIK.

news.cnet.com/Transmeta-sues-Intel-for-patent-infringement/2100-1006_3-6124965.html

EDIT:

www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1558,2155506,00.asp?kc=ETRSS02129TX1K0000532

LOL I knew Transmeta had licensed something to AMD, but Hypertransport and X86-64?
Thanks for the links. The second one was interesting. I was unaware of that.
Posted on Reply
#23
newconroer
robspierre6As always,no innovations from nvidia.
Just like they bought SLI technology with 3dfx purchase back in 2000.
And now,they are trolling about their physx on gpu like if it was a big deal.
In order to make you buy a high-end nvidia card and a low end cpu they want to convince
people that the physx on gpu is something useful which is BS.

I wonder what nvidia is going to do now about their faulty chips?
Aren't you the dude that also said Physics is no big deal? Or were you 'trolling' Nvidia and their "Physx" which if you hadn't noticed, and from your previous post on the matter, it looks like you haven't - Physx is processed through a exclusive die on the GPUs themselves, which means it's better than any previous Physics cards or implementations.

If Physx or Physics isn't useful, then we might as well all stop looking for advancements in the field of 3d applications and games, as will be forever stuck with technology on par with what was seen in Crysis.

While we're at it we might as well say 'ray tracing,' is "BS" too!
Posted on Reply
#24
newtekie1
Semi-Retired Folder
R-T-BI'm not saying the concept is flawed, just Transmeta's implementation of it.
Oh I know, I wasn't trying to argue with you. Just adding to what you said.
Posted on Reply
#25
robspierre6
newconroerAren't you the dude that also said Physics is no big deal? Or were you 'trolling' Nvidia and their "Physx" which if you hadn't noticed, and from your previous post on the matter, it looks like you haven't - Physx is processed through a exclusive die on the GPUs themselves, which means it's better than any previous Physics cards or implementations.

If Physx or Physics isn't useful, then we might as well all stop looking for advancements in the field of 3d applications and games, as will be forever stuck with technology on par with what was seen in Crysis.

While we're at it we might as well say 'ray tracing,' is "BS" too!
Well, i see it like this.
firstly, you have to own either a high end nvidia card or two cards in sli tow get the physx process with playable fps.
secondly, yes it faster to process physx on the gpu but,quad cores yet don't process physx using all four cores.Moreover,The new upcoming cpus from bth intel and AMD will have havok
drivers which means that they will do physx with all the cores at much faster speed.
Thirdly,It's not a bunch of chips. Have you checked the new at the inquirer or tgdaily lately?
all the g84, g86 and g200 chips have the problem.
Checkwww.fudzilla.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=8782&Itemid=1
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