Confusion Ensues As Intel Begins $125 Million Acquisition Agreement With VIA Technologies For x86 Talent
VIA Technologies began an agreement two days ago with Intel to allow them to headhunt engineers from the company'due south x86 R&D subsidiary, Centaur Technology. This agreement was appear during VIA Technology's Q3 earnings release and is very vaguely worded. Our readers will remember that Centaur (VIA Technologies) is the third x86 license holder in the globe (apart from AMD and Intel) and information technology is sort of puzzling that Intel would exist the buyer in this transaction.
Is VIA giving upwardly its x86 license or is Intel paying $125 million to bypass noncompete clauses?
Intel will pay Centaur Technology $125 one thousand thousand to "recruit" employees from the company'due south engineering staff to join Squad Blue. The agreement between VIA and Intel does not mention whatsoever other parts of Centaur Engineering in terms of Gelsinger's plans to finalize the deal.
Centaur Applied science, based out of Austin, Texas, has been a subsidiary of VIA since 1999. The company handles evolution of VIA'southward "x86 core designs," as well equally their in-business firm "ancillary IP," a evolution used for their deep learning accelerator technology.
Their Centaur subsidiary has never achieved full adoption of their x86 designs that AMD and Intel have accessed, simply have remained on the map the x86 market since their infancy in 1999 by VIA Technologies.
The CNS x86 cadre, Centaur's contempo design that was announced in the final quarter of 2019. The x86 core design past the company is focused on server-level workloads, showcasing "Haswell-similar full general CPU performance," combining with AVX-512 support which executes two rounds using a "256-chip SIMD." Centaur then utilizes CNS to create CHA, calculation fabric, I/O, and "an integrated proprietary deep learning accelerator." The initial silicon-based CHA product was planned to release in 2020 during the second one-half of the year, only the project never developed.
VIA'southward announcement does raise several questions due to the lack of any other information from VIA Technologies and Intel.
Website United Daily News has reported the deal between Intel and Centaur, just did state that it is non a "wholesale sale of Centaur'south squad, and that VIA is retaining the Centaur business." This would imply that VIA still has access ot the x86 license so is Intel paying nigh $125 million just to featherbed noncompete?
Centaur Technology's website has been altered since the deal has started with pages replaced with "UNDER Construction" folio holders. Due to the website changes, it appears that VIA no longer has a demand to keep up a public appearance for Centaur.
With AMD and Arm-level processors beingness a potent competitor to Intel, this new understanding gains more foothold for Team Blue with perhaps leveling i of the lesser x86 designers and accessing their engineering science.
Source: AnandTech, United Daily News, Centaur Technology
Source: https://wccftech.com/confusion-ensues-as-intel-begins-125-million-acquisition-agreement-with-via-technologies-for-x86-talent/
Posted by: churchillgraters.blogspot.com
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