Windows 7: Nvidia, Intel fight over chipset licensing

Sparks are flying between Intel and Nvidia right now. A statement from the latter about an Intel court filing popped into our inbox this morning, suggesting that Intel wants to keep Nvidia chipsets out of systems with Core i7 processors—and upcoming derivatives likes Lynnfield and Arrandale.



Apparently, Intel thinks its licensing agreement with Nvidia doesn't cover processors with integrated memory controllers (like the Core i7). Nvidia sees things differently. Here's the graphics firm's statement in full:


NVIDIA responded to a court filing in which Intel alleged that the four-year-old chipset license agreement the companies signed does not extend to Intel's future generation CPUs with "integrated" memory controllers, such as Nehalem. The filing does not impact NVIDIA chipsets that are currently being shipped. Intel is trying to delay the inevitable value shift from the CPU to the GPU.

NVIDIA believes that our bus license with Intel clearly enables us to build chipsets for Intel CPUs with integrated memory controllers. We are aggressively developing new products for Intel's current front side bus (MCP79 and MCP89) and for Intel's future bus, DMI.

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