Last month at the Computex 2017 Qualcomm announced that ASUS, HP and Lenovo will be the first OEM to develop mobile PCs powered by the ARM-based Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 Mobile PC Platform with X16 LTE modem. This came after Microsoft failed to bring Windows to ARM chips in the form of Windows RT with Surface with Windows RT and Nokia Lumia 2520.
Intel in a blog post earlier this week announcing the fast-approaching 40th anniversary since it introduced the first x86 microprocessor, the Intel 8086, said that it invests enormous resources to advance its dynamic x86 ISA, and therefore it must protect these investments with a strong patent portfolio and other intellectual property rights.
It said that it has deep and dynamic patent portfolio with over 1,600 patents worldwide relating to instruction set implementations and said it protects its x86 innovations, and do not widely license others to use them.
Intel also said that it has enforced its patent rights against various companies including Transmeta Corporation more recently. This seemingly hints of potential patent infringement around x86 emulation on ARM by Microsoft and Qualcomm.
Regarding this Intel said:
There have been reports that some companies may try to emulate Intel’s proprietary x86 ISA without Intel’s authorization. Emulation is not a new technology, and Transmeta was notably the last company to claim to have produced a compatible x86 processor using emulation (“code morphing”) techniques. Intel enforced patents relating to SIMD instruction set enhancements against Transmeta’s x86 implementation even though it used emulation.
Only time will tell if new attempts to emulate Intel’s x86 ISA will meet a different fate. Intel welcomes lawful competition, and we are confident that Intel’s microprocessors, which have been specifically optimized to implement Intel’s x86 ISA for almost four decades, will deliver amazing experiences, consistency across applications, and a full breadth of consumer offerings, full manageability and IT integration for the enterprise. However, we do not welcome unlawful infringement of our patents, and we fully expect other companies to continue to respect Intel’s intellectual property rights.
In reply Qualcomm said:
Given our recent announcement with ASUS, HP and Lenovo, we found the blog that one of our competitors published on June 8 very interesting. We look forward to the launch of the always connected Windows 10 PC powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 Mobile PC Platform later this year. As showcased at Computex 2017 in conjunction with Microsoft, the Snapdragon 835 Mobile PC Platform brings a true always connected PC experience with support for up to Gigabit LTE connectivity and all-day battery life for sleek, thin and fanless designs. This will change the future of personal computing.
Microsoft said:
Customers have told us they want Always Connected PCs, which will deliver great productivity at a great price, and we are confident in our ability to bring these compelling devices to market working with a wide range of partners
Intel doesn’t name Qualcomm or Microsoft, but it just said that the x86 technology is both proprietary and central to its business and it will thoroughly evaluate any products that claim to emulate x86 technology, and vigorously enforce its intellectual property rights if they believe they are infringed.
Both Qualcomm and Microsoft doesn’t directly respond to Intel’s claims and said that it is keen on bringing PCs based on Snapdragon 835 Mobile PC Platform to the market later this year. We should wait till later this year to find out what will happen.