Beastian (noemail.delete@this.aol.com) on April 19, 2019 9:05 am wrote:
> Does anyone think that the upcoming expiry of patents on the core x86-64 instruction set
> which includes SSE2, maybe sooner than 2023 (as the Athlon 64 was introduced in 2003) would
> open the flood gates for third party implementations of compatible processors?
>
> The basic architecture including importantly the memory model could freely be implemented in hardware
> once that core instruction set falls out of patent; I'm unclear about the amount of traction that later
> Intel instructions have gotten in common software, but emulation could at least ensure compatibility.
> Competition in x86 implementation has languished for long stretches of time, though it has seen a resurgence
> as of late; compare that to the ARM ecosystem which has seen vast improvements due to a larger number
> of implementers: Apple, Qualcomm, nVidia, Samsung, ARM, Applied Micro and Cavium.

Most of the x86-64 patents are owned by AMD. Most of the SSE2 patents are owned by Intel. I would imagine that AMD would be more willing to license their patents than Intel would, right?