News - Nvidia sues Qualcomm and Samsung over graphics patents

[keithwalton]

Isn't Unified shaders part of the directx 10+ standard ? or is it just every dx10+ design is unified shaders.
If it's the standard then nvidia's house of cards will come crashing down on them

[mercyground]

http://semiaccurate.com/2014/09/04/nvidia-sues-samsung-qualcomm-like-semiaccurate-said/

Apparently licensing is another reason why Nvidia got booted from Macbooks. (As well as the farce of faulty chips that Nvidia refused to fix)

[crossy]

Isn't Unified shaders part of the directx 10+ standard ? or is it just every dx10+ design is unified shaders.
If it's the standard then nvidia's house of cards will come crashing down on them

Shush, otherwise NVidia's crack team of lawyers (borrowed from Apple?) will go and sue Microsoft too.

[tribaljet]

http://semiaccurate.com/2014/09/04/nvidia-sues-samsung-qualcomm-like-semiaccurate-said/

Apparently licensing is another reason why Nvidia got booted from Macbooks. (As well as the farce of faulty chips that Nvidia refused to fix)

AFAIK, Nvidia did do a rather large recall for the 8 series chips that had solder issues. After all, not everyone's going to bake it back into working shape

[kompukare]

AFAIK, Nvidia did do a rather large recall for the 8 series chips that had solder issues. After all, not everyone's going to bake it back into working shape

Eh? I thought that Nvidia dragged their feet, denied the problem and eventually set aside around $250 million for a problem which caused probably at least $1 billion in damages (for one thing Nvidia only really admitted to G84 and G86, while I have seen 8800GT (G92), nFarce 7150 chipsets and so on all fail).

Apple were one of the few companies which did okay for their customers and tried to fix the effected machines. Problem was, they were only able to repair them with the same 8 series chips which had failed in the first place. And those parts would fail again. Some Mac owners had theirs repaired three times. If Nvidia were a reputable company like Intel, they would have recalled all their 8 series chips and replaced them with new ones without the dodgy solder. That would have cost them a lot of money but then, using the wrong solder is a rather elementary for a company selling hardware to get wrong.

[tribaljet]

Eh? I thought that Nvidia dragged their feet, denied the problem and eventually set aside around $250 million for a problem which caused probably at least $1 billion in damages (for one thing Nvidia only really admitted to G84 and G86, while I have seen 8800GT (G92), nFarce 7150 chipsets and so on all fail).

Apple were one of the few companies which did okay for their customers and tried to fix the effected machines. Problem was, they were only able to repair them with the same 8 series chips which had failed in the first place. And those parts would fail again. Some Mac owners had theirs repaired three times. If Nvidia were a reputable company like Intel, they would have recalled all their 8 series chips and replaced them with new ones without the dodgy solder. That would have cost them a lot of money but then, using the wrong solder is a rather elementary for a company selling hardware to get wrong.

They did drag their feet but denial wasn't that long. I've seen first hand those issues with both mobile 8 series GPUs as well as motherboards from coworkers and friends. Of course it was an awful situation that sure wasn't deal the best way, but could be worst, such as the Apple malware fiasco that went on some time ago.

[shaithis]

Eh? I thought that Nvidia dragged their feet, denied the problem and eventually set aside around $250 million for a problem which caused probably at least $1 billion in damages (for one thing Nvidia only really admitted to G84 and G86, while I have seen 8800GT (G92), nFarce 7150 chipsets and so on all fail).

Just because something failed, doesn't mean it was the fault of the issue you suspect. Things die all the time.

[MiloFo]

First time initiating a lawsuit in 21 years? Eh? What about 3Dfx, who they sued out of business over patent infringement in 2000?

Then they bought/took over all sdfx's IP.

Wikipedia talks about Qualcom having originated their GPU tech from ATI/AMD

Mind you perhaps the article has been "tweaked" - the article was last modidied on 2 sept. this year.

[Brewster0101]

Samsung are buying products that have in theory stolen technology from Nvidia.

Instead of throwing Samsung under the bus, Nvidia have done the right thing and given them a way out.
But now I see it as Receipt of stolen property as in federal crime under 18 U.S.C. 2315,

Samsung is liable as they clearly knew.

[crossy]

Samsung are buying products that have in theory stolen technology from Nvidia. ... Samsung is liable as they clearly knew.

The "in theory" part is clearly the crucial point. That second sentence though, surely, is debatable. Did Sammy buy "disputed" tech knowing that it's provenance was dodgy, or were they assured by Qualcomm that it was "clean".

After all, I'm assuming that NVidia approached Samsung privately before hitting the "lawyer bomb" button. In that case, did Samsung then check with Qualcomm who told them that there were no concerns? I wouldn't be surprised if there was some kind of sue protection in Samsung's contract with Qualcomm, especially given the number of times that Samsung's been savaged by Apple.

[jigger]

Looks like Samsung are having on of this. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-29077101

It's interesting that Nvidia are now saying the talks with Samsung and ARM was now months and not years.
I hope Nvidia fail and get counter sued over this rubbish.

[DevDrake]

However, I can't quite see the logic in going after samsung if the problem lies in qualcomm's house, as it would appear to at first glance here...

It is not like that. If you do sell something illegal to someone and that person know that this is illegal, then you cannot resell it as it is illegal.

Samsung knew, and they still resold illegal chips. They are huge company and they are biggest market for Qualcomm. This make Qualcomm ignore the license, as they still have the buyer - all they need.


This is very unfair situation for nVidia - they put a lot money into the development and now someone uses that for free.

You may think that it will hurt customer but it is oposite, if the R&D effort pays back then the more money is put into it. Ultimately we will get better technology faster.


Hope this matter will get resolved fast. For the sake of us, customers!

[crossy]

Samsung knew, and they still resold illegal chips. They are huge company and they are biggest market for Qualcomm. This make Qualcomm ignore the license, as they still have the buyer - all they need.

This is very unfair situation for nVidia - they put a lot money into the development and now someone uses that for free.
Hope this matter will get resolved fast. For the sake of us, customers!

I'm going to disagree with what you're saying. First of there's no evidence (at least I've seen) that shows Samsung knowingly bought chips using "stolen" technology. And I'm sure Qualcomm will argue very strongly that NVidia's claims are unjustified and unfair.

If NVidia were pursuing Qualcomm for licensing of the tech they were using, was that disclosed to Samsung? License negotiations are usually commercially sensitive, so it's entirely possible that Qualcomm and NVidia were talking, but were keeping that to themselves. Or Samsung may have been told by either that there was a dispute and Qualcomm advised that NVidia's claims were bogus.

Where I do agree is that this needs to be sorted out but, on the flipside, we the customers are not served best if unwarranted patent "extortion" is permitted.

I'd suggest the sensible thing is to be neutral at the moment until more information comes out of the court case. NVidia could have been ripped off (as they claim) or they could be trying on an Apple-esque "intellectual property grab". I don't know which it is at the moment.