NVIDIA and Intel have agreed to drop all outstanding legal disputes between them, with NVIDIA announcing this afternoon that it has signed a new six-year cross-licensing agreement with Intel.
Under the new agreement, Intel will have continued access to NVIDIA’s full range of patents. In return, NVIDIA will receive an aggregate of $1.5 billion in licensing fees, to be paid in five annual installments, beginning Jan. 18, 2011, and retain use of Intel’s patents, consistent with its existing six-year agreement with Intel. The agreement excludes Intel’s proprietary processors, flash memory and certain chipsets for the Intel platform.
“This agreement signals a new era for NVIDIA,” said Jen-Hsun Huang, NVIDIA’s president and chief executive officer. “Our cross license with Intel reflects the substantial value of our visual and parallel computing technologies. It also underscores the importance of our inventions to the future of personal computing, as well as the expanding markets for mobile and cloud computing.”
The existing agreement is to expire March 31, 2011. Roger Parloff at Fortune provides a good story (Has Intel Finally Met its Match?) on the background of NVIDIA’s battle with Intel in an article published this past summer. Suggested Reading – Mobile & Smart Device Security Survey 2010
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