Intel cashing in on Wine?
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| Author | Content |
|---|---|
| hkwint Mar 29, 2011 5:06 PM EDT |
Whoever of you folks followed the tech-news, knows Intel will take a real beating in earnings because of the ARM-competition. Many settop-boxes run Linux on ARM. So, of course, Intel will be pushing their CE4100 chips, aimed at said settop-boxes. That's no surprise, of course. Neither is it, they might spend over $100 million R&D + marketing or so to push their chips in said boxes. But what did surprise me, and what I missed, is Intel put $0.5M in Transgaming! In the GameTree.tv platform. Why? Because Transgaming developed a 'game-on-demand' system, which uses their (Cedega?) technology to make Windows games (that's what I assume) run on the Intel settop-boxes, which of course run Linux. Meaning you can rent a Windows game and run it on your Linux/Intel settop box, which is connected to the TV. GameTree.tv will be launched in Europe next month. If you're not in Europe: Now you know how it feels if 'on demand' companies like Netflix are ignoring your region. As far as I understand, using both Linux, Wine and existing Windows games, Intel tries to cash in on Wine. Maybe Europe is further away from the 'software-patent war', I don't know. At least in Europe you can't file a complaint somebody is infringing your patents, you'd have to file multiple in multiple countries, like Nokia did against Apple. So it becomes less desirable to litigate. Any thoughts anyone? |
| Bob_Robertson Mar 29, 2011 5:16 PM EDT |
> Any thoughts anyone? If this is true, I believe that Microsoft is going to be taking a long, hard, litigious look at WINE. |
| hkwint Mar 29, 2011 5:33 PM EDT |
Well, if it's not vapourware, then it's true. I should be able to tell you in a few weeks. |
| gus3 Mar 29, 2011 5:41 PM EDT |
Four years ago, Intel sold the XScale ARM CPU business to Marvell at a loss of roughly US$1B, in order to "focus on their core x86 business" (my words). Since then, we've seen a growing awareness of the un-RISC-ness of the x86 instruction set, reflected in power consumption per instruction executed and in the money spent for that power. People see their iPhones, Android phones, and whatnot else, running decent apps--using a very broad definition of "apps"--on batteries. Linux broadly demonstrated that hardware design was not tied to the software that drove it. As a result, other CPU architectures have become serious contenders for non-desktop use.(*) The ubiquity of the x86 family was bound to the historical "Wintel alliance," but with even Microsoft challenging Intel's domination of the Windows arena (Windows Phone 7 runs on ARM 7), Intel must adapt or die. How relevant that is to hkwint's point, I leave to the reader to judge. (*)FWIW, I'm really hoping to see desktop systems using ARM. The fact that ARM is creeping into other computing sectors, will work to its advantage on the desktop, by keeping it from being just another "flash in the pan." |
| Steven_Rosenber Mar 30, 2011 12:58 AM EDT |
I'd love to see ARM motherboards out there in mini-ITX size. |
| hkwint Mar 30, 2011 4:48 AM EDT |
Mini-ITX? Sure? That's over 6 inch! Buy a PandaBoard, it's much smaller; 4x4.5in. Gus: I think a new article about Linux on ARM is in my pipeline; and indeed the Marvell-story is one of the most interesting parts of such an article. |
| JaseP Mar 30, 2011 9:00 AM EDT |
Quoting: If this is true, I believe that Microsoft is going to be taking a long, hard, litigious look at WINE. Patents on a system call, particularly when WINE is simply translating them to their Posix equivalents (for the most part)?!?! I think they would have sprung their response already. ReactOS has more to worry about... |
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