Nvidia files 'Nehalem' countersuit against Intel

Updated on March 27 at 8:15 a.m. PST with comments from analyst.

On Thursday, Nvidia announced that it filed a countersuit against Intel in response to a filing by Intel last month alleging that a chipset license agreement does not extend to Intel's future-generation processors.

The action also seeks to terminate Intel's license to Nvidia's patent portfolio.

Last month, Intel alleged in a lawsuit that the 4-year-old chipset license agreement with Nvidia does not extend to Intel's future-generation processors with "integrated" memory controllers, such as its Nehalem processor.

"Nvidia did not initiate this legal dispute," said Jen-Hsun Huang, president and CEO of Nvidia, in a statement. "But we must defend ourselves...Intel's actions are intended to block us from making use of the very license rights that they agreed to provide."

Nvidia entered into the now-disputed agreement in 2004. In return, Intel took a license to Nvidia's portfolio of 3D, GPU, and other computing patents, according to the Santa Clara, Calif.-based graphics chipmaker. Nvidia said it had been attempting for more than a year to resolve the disagreement with Intel.

Nvidia said last month that Intel is claiming that the cross-license agreement doesn't apply to future bus interfaces, specifically the interface Intel uses to link the Nehalem processor to the system's memory, a new Intel feature.

Nvidia believes that the PC has become a GPU-based platform as much as a CPU-based platform and that Intel is trying to delay that inevitable shift by using the courts. (CPU stands for central processing unit; GPU stands for graphics processing unit.)

In a research note Friday Doug Freedman of Broadpoint AmTech said: "We are not surprised by NVDA's (Nvidia's) counter-suit against INTC (Intel) over chipset licensing of Nehalem's front side bus (FSB). We believe Intel's intent is not to prevent NVDA from using Nehalem FSB, but to use litigation as leverage for obtaining necessary IP/cooperation from NVDA (even possibly seeking IP in support of its non-PC SoC initiatives)." (IP stands for intellectual property; SoC stands for system-on-a-chip.)

[Hunnter2k3]

Oh wow, i never realised this happened, i must have completely missed it... this sure doesn't sound too good.

Hopefully they can come to some agreement, breaking relationships in these hard times is never a good thing.

[subsider34]

Are you kidding? This would give AMD some time to get back to being competitive, and competitive is what our whole economy is about.

[AL-Graphic]

Both sides need to take a step back to a relationship of positive and collaborate stage: Intel Chip is the most powerful and finest chip in the world, this is a fact that even today's i7, its speed and its thermal heat are just reverse, in other words, Intel chip never over heat, this is the most high end technology what Intel has so far, it surpress over any kind of chip in this world, no one can do it like Intel; but if you want Intel to develop its own GPU or enbedded Graphic chip into's it's motherboard and play as GeForce SLI or CrossFire AMD, it is a joke, it never reach that level at all! Intel just can't do as Nvidia's Graphic technology so powerful, that only Nvidia has the knowledge and technology to make PC(mac or PC) to reach a vivid graphic interface and still not take any CPU resource at all, all depending on its GPU processing; on the other hand, that's how Nvidia can do so far, it's GX or even GT Geforce GPU is getting bigger and chuckly big, fan is bigger and bigger, heat is getting higher and higher, even you go to Nano 45 nm, the GPU will still a bulky as big as today's XLR8 series, Nvidia is not Intel, the heat issue will alwasy be there to Nvidia, and no way Nvidia can make an excellent motherboard or chipset as Intel today's chip technology to control the heat also the speed and size at the same time, and can have AfterEffect or Photoshop CS4 to running background and have multimedia file loading at the same time. What Intel can, Nvidia can't; what Nvidia can, Intel just can't do it!

[Sausagebiscuit]

Could anyone who was able to make it to the end of this wall of text please post a brief summary of what point the OP was trying to make?

[Dalkorian]

I made it to the end, but I can't help you Sausagebiscuit. I still have no idea what AL is trying to say.

[MeepMan]

I made it there. My mind sort of meshed through it. Tight squeeze, though. Lost a couple dozen cells here and there.

AL-Graphic-Overheat is trying to tell you just that. NVidia overheats, but Intel's graphics technology is more of a graphi technology. It got most of it then it burnt out and crashed head-first into the middle of the CPU.

Now, about recovering those cells... Maybe if I read it sdrawkcab? (backwards)

[dreidogg]

WTH?

[Button Boy]

It's all about posturing between opposing law firms. And PR fims.