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Nvidia announces that they will license Kepler and later GPU architectures to anyone who wants them
The one obvious place where this could make for a great chip is an Intel CPU with Nvidia integrated graphics in a single chip. This, of course, will probably never happen, partly because Intel isn't likely to be willing to pay what Nvidia would demand, and partly because Intel CPUs are built on process nodes not at all similar to Nvidia GPUs, and this would create all sorts of headaches. AMD struggled mightily to get a high performance CPU and GPU onto the same chip, even with the option to design a process node around the need to have a high performance CPU and GPU on the same chip.
Apart from that, there aren't any obvious Nvidia licensees. AMD has their own GPU architecture that is just as good as Nvidia's, so they have no need to license Nvidia's. ARM licensees would be basically recreating Tegra chips and trying to compete with Nvidia in the same market. Nvidia is already trying to put high end GPU chips into any market that they think might plausibly want them.
Comments
Honestly it sounds more like an act of desperation than anything. There may be a few niche players who want to play with it - I could see someone trying to pack one into a tablet or something. I can't see it being very practical, but you know there will be some fanboys who can't look past the graphics benchmarks, and never mind the 35 minute battery life.
Kinda like when Apple decided to license Macintosh System 7 in 1995. It didn't go over very well either.
The simple man (ME) wants to know if this means Nvidia is just fishing for extra cash or is this a sign of true desperation to come?
OR does it mean nothing, just another business move?
AMD would tell you that they've done quite well for themselves with their semi-custom APUs. Of course, after AMD claimed the Xbox One and the PlayStation 4, it's not clear that there is much more of a market for someone else to come in and claim. And since AMD essentially designed the entire chip, that's really not the same as what Nvidia is hoping to do here.
I'd lean toward the "desperation" explanation, but we'll really have to wait and see. If Nvidia has some big licensees lined up that they just haven't announced yet, then this could be big. In particular, if Intel soon announces that Sky Lake will have Nvidia graphics or something like that, then that's a game-changer.
But if Nvidia doesn't have any licensees lined up yet and is really only announcing that they'd like to have some, then it's desperation.