Nvidia has reportedly begun hiring former engineers from Transmeta and is looking to develop its own x86-compatible processor core in a bid to continue its lucrative chipset business. The now-defunct microprocessor producer specialized in low-power, x86-compatible processors before turning into an intellectual property licensing firm and eventually closing doors in September of 2008.

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Is it just me, or does this seem like a losing proposition from the jump? Here comes Cyrix II

The future of the CPU/GPU market is very uncertain, and I would hate to see any of the big players go away, especially Nvidia simply because they don't have any CPUs or CPU/GPU integration. I'm not a big fan of integrating the CPU and GPU into one because that makes upgrading extremely expensive, plus it would eliminate SLI and CrossFire. It also decreases the longevity of your computer, because with every graphics enhancement, you have to upgrade your CPU as well.

Transmetta was great in it's day but its technologies and IP are no longer current and better tech has come in it's place. While i think it's team could make a good CPU with Nvidia funding it and working with them it seems that Nvidia would be at a loss starting from the ground up. It's a shame VIA's processor unit isn't for sale, with nvidia's vision and VIA's tech that would be a competitor i would invest in.

I think for the reasons you give, integrated CPU/GPU probably wont kick off (at least I also hope not). Even though my upgrades used to flip-flop between processor and graphics (with the occasional memory boost), it was an affordable way to stay in loop and I found it quite fun too.

As for the x86 line, probably not a bad idea. With RAM becoming more expensive in the near future, I guess the need for 64 bit processors will decline slightly, so more powerful 32bit chips could do well. But, as was said, starting from the beginning may prove to be a bad move.

Nvidia would be better off making there own CPU platform. Then buying some archaic company that failed the first time.

At least strike a deal with IBM, or VIA.

This can turn out to be quite the challenge , but i stink nVidia will fail to use the right price , they will overprice it , no one will want to buy it , end of story . :D

More companies in the same industry means more competition, which brings lower prices and better hardware!

Hope it works out for Nvidia.

Having CPU/GPU hybrid chips is definitely the future, as proven by GPGPU applications. And they won't be necessarily more expensive than current technology, it is only a matter of yield rates. If future motherboards have slots where you place these CPU/GPU hybrid chips instead of cpu sockets, there still exists room for SLI/Crossfire. We are so accustomed to having a dedicated CPU that these extreme ideas seem science fiction.

As much as I love nVidia, I just can't picture them as a major player into the x86 processor market. I mean, they don't have experience with that sort of product, and with Intel's Core i7 processors, they have quite a challenge in front of them if there is any truth to this article.

Good luck to them, this will be interesting to watch!

I could see them maybe doing stuff with micro pc's or something maybe HTPC related but they're never going to compete with Intel or AMD unless they come up with something neither company has been able to create. I'd prefer they focus on video cards and chipsets.

I can't see Nvidia going into the CPU market when (a) Intel has the lion share and (b) it is already very competitive between AMD and Intel. Nvidia needs to concentrate on their integrated graphics chipsets and leave the CPU's to AMD and Intel.

I wonder in how many years will we see the unification of the CPU with the GPU? 10-20?
If NVIDIA is going to make a processor then it most likely compete with NANO or Atom.

It seems obvious to me that Nvidia is coming to the cpu realm. Intel and AMD are cpu manufacturers looking to meld cpu and gpu. Once performance is acceptable/phenomenal it is obvious that OEM will look to the simpler hardware solution for mainstream and multimedia pc's Whenever that happens and it IS going to happen Nvidia will be left in no-man's-land. A gpu company with no market except for enthusiasts.

Take a look at nvidia's current offerings and their marketing terminology, they are pushing 'parallel processing' 'clusters' and 'supercomputers'. This and the release of CUDA, why not get programmers accustomed to coding for your processing platform ? On their site they have a simple image of a traditional cpu with 4 cores next to their tesla (which is basically a processor in the pci bus) with 240 cores. Any layman will think "why am I not using the 240 core one?"

They create great chipsets and powerful graphics solutions among many other products, why not go to the next logical step ? With a processor they'll complete the platform and give the company new viability. The nvidia x86 processor is inevitable.

This could eliminate the need for normal Size motherboards, and possibly also make them cheaper, Imagine If they can implement RAM + GPU into the CPU die, The only use for a motherboard would be hosting the cpu, sound card, usb ports and that function, and dont forget SATA ports too, anyways this could reduze the price and size of motherboard by a lot once It's implemented. But unfotunetly the cpu/gpu/ram die will probably be super expensive

What a joke this is ,,, according to "1" analyst man all I can say is just ... why?

The thing is that this analyst cant fathom is the possibility of NO CPU ..
This is what NVIDIA is planning, they want to make low power, low cost solutions for the masses ( kinda like what Apple did with the Iphone and Ipod) but Apple cant touch NVIDIA's R&D in fact not many can.
NVIDIA is wanting to emulate an x86 architecture on the GPU so they can produce a system on chip with CUDA cores.
Imagine a netbook with that kind of power. I'm sure it won't do amazing things to start as there isn't much of a push in OpenCl right now ( but its coming ) NVIDIA's future depends on the movement that more and more apps are moving to parallel processing and with NVIDIA puting more and more CUDA cores on every new generation it wont be long before they will have all the computational power your PC will need.

NVIDIA making an x86 cpu ... what a joke!

Intel and AMD are cpu manufacturers looking to meld cpu and gpu because the long rein of the x86 cpu is coming to and end. They know this and it is the reason AMD bought ATI and Intel is developing larrabee. The industry is pushing forward to massively parallel computational computing architectures.

Get accustomed? They are catering to them.
The thing about the Fermi architecture is that it is not just designed to play games it is also going to take GPGPU to the next level with the advancements NVIDIA has made with support for CUDA, C++, Direct Compute, DirectX 11, Fortran, OpenCL, OpenGL 3.1 and OpenGL 3.2

The big thing here is native support for C++ and OpenCl

They are doing the logical step and the only thing inevitable about the x86 architecture is that it will end.

I feel Nvidia should just stay making video cards, I feel they are of great quality but making processors? I think its not there business and they shouldn't go down that road.

I have a hard time seeing Nvidia as a real competitor to Intel or AMD in the x86 space. Maybe they can focus on lower power, low end CPU/GPU combos for things like netbooks, but moving further up the line seems like a huge investment in time and effort ($$$). But maybe they have no other choice. Right now, Nvidia is the odd man out. Intel and AMD control their own platforms - CPU, GPU, and chipsets. Seems like Nvidia either has to go down that road too, or start shifting more into other areas (like with Tegra) where they won't be at the mercy of Intel of AMD moves to lock out competition.

@JieMan massively parallel computational computing architectures won't become the standard anytime soon 9at least for another decade) and until then nvidia needs all the experience they can get from making a few CPU's even if they're not successful. I'm just hoping that GPGPU will be widely adopted by the time win8 is released.