The Intel and NVIDIA Deal
Friday's announcement of the cross patent licensing deal between Intel and NVIDIA marks the official arrival of NVIDIA into the Intel chipset arena, something that has been rumored off and on since the announcement that NVIDIA was providing the chipset for the Xbox (also built around an Intel chip). No time is being wasted as NVIDIA confirmed that it should begin mass production of nForce Intel chipsets in Q1 2005. The arrival of NVIDIA on the Intel front has some big implications for both companies. We'll cover some of these developments here.
The short statements released by Intel and NVIDIA disclosed very few details about the deal. We followed up with Intel and NVIDIA about this and have a few more details.
What Is Being Said
The cross patent licensing deal has been in the works for two to three years which looks to be in the same general time frame as when NVIDIA first entered the core logic business. Intel is downplaying the significance of this deal citing the fact that they also have similar agreements in place with ATI, VIA, SiS and others.
NVIDIA declined to speculate on what Intel plans to do as a result of the patent agreement. Our source at Intel has suggested that there are no imminent products upcoming based on the announcement. Instead, the focus was on R&D efforts as the deal allows Intel some more engineering freedom without having to worry about patent infringement.
The only product line up that has been confirmed out of this deal so far is the Intel nForce boards which should presumably bring the same SKUs as seen on the AMD side with value, enthusiast and SLI solutions. When questioning Intel about the logistics of bringing on a partner that arguably has very strong branding in the core logic market, Intel responded that NVIDIA is not a direct competitor but a high end enthusiast solution that is not competing against their own product offerings.
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