"Platinum" wind wrinkle chip industry pattern

The upsurge of tablet computers in the ascendant period caused the chip industry to experience fluctuations on the 10th. Intel, the world's largest chip maker, announced on the same day that it will pay $1.5 billion in royalties to graphics chip maker Invensys to enhance its graphics processing capabilities. The CEO of AMD, the No. 2 producer, was forced to leave because of the company’s poor performance in the tablet PC market.

The chipset is the core component of the motherboard responsible for the operation of the central processor and peripheral devices. According to an agreement reached between Intel and Nvidia in 2004, Nvidia can use Intel's patented technology to produce chipsets. But Intel sued NVIDIA in February 2009 that the new chipset that Nvidia plans to produce is compatible with Intel’s latest processor, and Nvidia should pay Intel’s royalties.

Nvidia subsequently filed an anti-litigation claiming that it had obtained the patent of the chipset technology in the 2004 agreement, stating that Intel was suing to suppress the development of the graphics processor to protect its declining central processor business.

In a press release issued on the 10th, Intel said that the two companies have reached a comprehensive long-term patent cooperation agreement, and the two parties will exchange some patent usage rights. Intel will pay US$1.5 billion in royalties to Nvidia in the next five years. .

Nvidia President and CEO Huang Renxun said in a statement that this represents the arrival of a new era that fully illustrates the significance of graphics processing technology for the development of personal computers, smart phones and cloud computing.

Analysts said that the $1.5 billion amount was shocking enough to see how much Intel valued NVIDIA's graphics processing technology. In the agreement, Nvidia did not receive Intel's patent license for personal processors, which indicates that it has a longer-term plan for the development of its own processors.

Nvidia recently announced that it will begin designing a central processor for personal computers and will use ARM's chip architecture. At the just-concluded International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nvidia announced that it plans to collaborate with ARM to launch a high-performance, single-coin-sized CPU, and plans to expand into PCs and servers. ARM chips quickly occupy the market of smart phones and tablet computers with low power consumption and small size. 77% of chips used by Google Android phones, Apple iPads, and Samsung Galaxy Tabs use ARM architecture.

Also on the 10th, AMD, the world's second-largest chip maker, announced that Dirk Meyer, the chief executive who once let the company out of trouble, will no longer hold any position in the company. AMD is looking for a leader who is more comfortable with the development of the new era. According to U.S. media reports, AMD’s board of directors believes Meyer is inactive in the tablet PC market and is very disappointed.

Insiders pointed out that the new wave of the chip industry is an adjustment to the emerging mobile computing device market. Intel and AMD both want their products to enter smartphones and tablets. High-definition video is a major feature of mobile devices. Nvidia, which has a leading position in the image processing field, hopes to use this to broaden the application range of graphics processors. Let it also have the functionality of a central processor. As the market for mobile devices such as tablets continues to expand in the future, the chip industry may experience more restructuring.