By Tony Smith, Register Hardware
Nvidia has taken on staff from one-time star of low-power processor design Transmeta, an analyst has claimed, to drive its own x86 core development programme. In a note sent to investment clients yesterday, Doug Freedman of research house AmTech said Nvidia has to be considering a move into the x86 CPU market “by necessity to preserve both GPU and chipset revenue”.

The chip maker is currently caught up in a legal battle with Intel over the scope it has to develop chipsets for future Intel processors. Clearly, that could limit its ability to sell chipsets long term, as will AMD’s increasing willingness to emphasise its own chipsets over third-party products. If Nvidia can’t sell parts to go with Intel or AMD processors, arguably it has to develop its own CPUs which it can tie its own chipsets to.

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Nvidia may be moving into X86 market