Intel Realizes the Only Way to Save x86 is to Democratize it, Reopens x86 IP Licensing

[Darmok N Jalad]

If this were true, all it would accomplish is inviting nvidia to the cafeteria to steal Intel’s lunch money.

 

[Nhonho]

Is this really true, or just an April Fools joke?

I think a modern x86 CPU is made with thousands of patents from Intel, AMD and from other companies as well. I think a company, like Nvidia, would have to get all these patents from all these companies (not only from Intel) to manufacture its own x86 CPU.

 

[trsttte]

Woww!!! checks date Ohh, ok then

 

[Six_Times]

Still the best for processing branch chain code.

 

[Minus Infinity]

Man my first PC was powered by Cyrix IIRC

Lot of life left in x86, I doubt it's ever too late to open it up again. Doubt we'll ever see an all new desktop cpu architecture for PC, this is not like Apple where you had a tightly controlled closed ecosystem. It would be a nightmare.

 

[Dr. Dro]

Man my first PC was powered by Cyrix IIRC

Lot of life left in x86, I doubt it's ever too late to open it up again. Doubt we'll ever see an all new desktop cpu architecture for PC, this is not like Apple where you had a tightly controlled closed ecosystem. It would be a nightmare.

With the maturity of cross-platform runtimes and ease of portability, PCs won't need to be necessarily restricted to x86. That's likely why Intel proposed the x86-S redux, although that will go places if ARM proves viable. I guess it rests on Qualcomm and Microsoft to prove that with the Snapdragon X Elite and a refined Windows 11 on ARM port. If performance is adequate, the operating system feels snappy, and battery life is great... it might just work.

 

[LabRat 891]

April Fools prank, clearly.

 

[RJARRRPCGP]

Shouldn't have sat on selling quad cores to plebs for 10+ years!

2012-2016 was "the CPU malaise era", even if not totally malaise.

The patents for the basic x86-64 instruction set have expired anyway, so the joke may be all true!

Yep, patents don't last anywhere as long as copyrights.

 

[tpa-pr]

Admittedly I'm a bit of a sourpuss when it comes to April Fools and tech (boy did I have fun with clients in 2016 and Google's "mic drop" prank) but at least this one is kind of harmless (except maybe to Intel's stock price, who knows).

Got a "hah" out of me, kudos.

 

[Vayra86]

CERN to change name for 70th Anniversary

View attachment 341575

CERN to change name for 70th Anniversary

Update: Did you enjoy our April Fools’ day story? CERN is indeed celebrating its 70th anniversary, but without changing its name. For the complete CERN70 anniversary events and programme of activities, visit cern.ch/cern70. Since its inception in 1954, CERN has grown from a small group of...

home.cern

I liked the CoolBlue one too. Original

This TPU one genuinely had me until I had read the full article... well played!

 

[_JP_]

This seriously had me going until the announced that being a year from now.
But seriously, I wouldn't put it past Intel to be so stubborn regarding x86 that it would actually do that as a business move in the hopes of keeping x86 relevant for the 30's onwards and getting some easy cash in the meantime.
They just had to convince Musk that it would be a "libre" model as opposed to ARM to get him on board, posting on X, and BAM! a bunch of start-ups would get easy VCs backing them up.

 

[kapone32]

With the maturity of cross-platform runtimes and ease of portability, PCs won't need to be necessarily restricted to x86. That's likely why Intel proposed the x86-S redux, although that will go places if ARM proves viable. I guess it rests on Qualcomm and Microsoft to prove that with the Snapdragon X Elite and a refined Windows 11 on ARM port. If performance is adequate, the operating system feels snappy, and battery life is great... it might just work.

Did not MS try ARM based tablets about 10 years or less ago? That was supposed to be the hook for Windows 8. We know how successful that was. The secret to X86 is DX12 anyway so that is not going anywhere. There are plenty of wants in that software. If you think that they will port that to Snapdragon or Qualcomm, when all tech Companies are going ape shit in terms of stock price that is not going to happen.

 

[Vayra86]

i wish it was true.
i dislike both AMD and Intel when it comes to CPUs.

I heard you can emulate games on ARM now, so what are you waiting for

 

[GerKNG]

I heard you can emulate games on ARM now, so what are you waiting for

I want a high end desktop x86 CPU that is not from these two companies.

 

[Dr. Dro]

Did not MS try ARM based tablets about 10 years or less ago? That was supposed to be the hook for Windows 8. We know how successful that was. The secret to X86 is DX12 anyway so that is not going anywhere. There are plenty of wants in that software. If you think that they will port that to Snapdragon or Qualcomm, when all tech Companies are going ape shit in terms of stock price that is not going to happen.

It was a little over 10 years ago, it failed both because ARM chips were slow at the time and because of Windows RT, which was a stripped down version of Windows 8 that only ran apps off their stupid store. Modern ARM chips are fast and power efficient, so all that needs to happen is for Microsoft to get the OS right, and this new ARM version of Windows 11 is fully featured, and even includes x86/64 emulation support, meaning it should run most regular PC software unmodified.

 

[polinsteve]

ARM graduated from smartphones?
I think not.
I remember the RISCOS operating system running on ARM powered Acorn Archimedes range computers from the mid-late 1980's and the Acorn RISC pc from the mid 90's.
They were very capable machines.

 

[Chrispy_]

Okay, I was reading this on the 2nd and I legitimately made it all the way to the last sentence before I put two and two together.
It's pretty far-fetched but skirts the realms of plausibility just enough. Intel have thrown more curveballs under Gelsinger than the previous two yawnfests, so...

WP GG.

 

[LabRat 891]

Okay, I was reading this on the 2nd and I legitimately made it all the way to the last sentence before I put two and two together.
It's pretty far-fetched but skirts the realms of plausibility just enough. Intel have thrown more curveballs under Gelsinger than the previous two yawnfests, so...

WP GG.

Qualcomm's push into ultraportables and server infrastructure seems to make this joke seem less unrealistic.

Snapdragon X Elite beats AMD and Intel flagship mobile CPUs in Geekbench 6 – Qualcomm's new laptop chip leads in single- and multi-core tests

ARM closes the gap with x86.

www.tomshardware.com

 

[chrcoluk]

April Fools prank, clearly.

It wouldnt mean much without AMD doing the same with AMD64 otherwise its just 32bit x86 opened up.

 

[LabRat 891]

It wouldnt mean much without AMD doing the same with AMD64 otherwise its just 32bit x86 opened up.

TBF, it would still drive a ton of "community developments" (NtM, seemingly-anachronistic interests from National Entities)
and, potentially help some projects along, that are currently stuck w/ FPGAs and/or re-purposed Industrial kit.

IIRC, there's been individuals' projects for 'cloning' early 16-bit and 32-bit Intel uArch chips, on more-modern but 'cheap' lithography.
Opening Up ix86 would see those 'pilot projects', made monetizable.

It's a neat dream; still, mere fantasy (for now).

 

[Xaled]

I've successfully been Democratized..

Good one TPU