- Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) alleges Qualcomm's (QCOM) Snapdragon processors and Samsung's Exynos processors infringe "GPU patents covering technology including programmable shading, unified shaders and multithreaded parallel processing." Complaints have been filed at a Delaware district court and the ITC.
- A number of Samsung phones/tablets relying on Qualcomm and/or Samsung processors are featured in the complaint, including the Galaxy S5, Note 4, Tab S, and Tab 2.
- Qualcomm's processors feature proprietary Adreno GPU cores, while Samsung's rely on cores developed by ARM and Imagination. Nvidia's Tegra processor line competes against Qualcomm and (indirectly) Samsung's offerings.
- Nvidia already has a multi-year patent licensing deal with Intel that nets the company $66M/quarter. Last year, Nvidia announced it's willing to license its Kepler GPU architecture to third parties. Interest has been limited thus far.
- Given its giant patent portfolio, Qualcomm might be tempted to file a countersuit.
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