News Intel's First x86 CPU Had Secret Instructions Meant to Catch IP Thievery

[Admin]

Intel's 8086 processor featured a number of dead ends within its microcode and architecture design for elements that were massacred in the feature-set cutting room before the CPU's release. One such functionality was actually a hidden watermark Intel used to learn whether its rivals were copying its microcode instead of writing their own.

Intel's First x86 CPU Had Secret Instructions Meant to Catch IP Thievery : Read more

 

[dehjomz]

Would NEC beat Ryzen today? The world will never know.

 

[digitalgriffin]

When you can't beat them, sue them.

3dfx -> sues nvidia
Creative Labs & nvidia -> sue individual developers for reenabling hardware.

 

[hotaru.hino]

x86 to this day still has instructions that aren't officially accounted for, simply because the instruction set allows for a mind boggling amount:

 

[LabRat 891]

I can't help but wonder if some of these 'gotchya' undocumented features are intertwined with ix86's ancient and ongoingly-discovered basal security flaws...

 

[bit_user]

Would NEC beat Ryzen today? The world will never know.

I know it's not a direct answer, but still loosely related.

Is This The End Of The Line For NEC Vector Supercomputers? - The Next Platform

Updated: There is some chatter – some might call it well-informed speculation – going on out there on the Intertubes that Japanese system maker NEC is shutting down its “Aurora” Vector Engine vector processor business. If this turns out to be true, this would mark the end of the vector...

www.nextplatform.com

 

[bit_user]

When you can't beat them, sue them.

3dfx -> sues nvidia
Creative Labs & nvidia -> sue individual developers for reenabling hardware.

You forgot ARM vs. Qualcomm/Nuvia.

Anyway, let's see how the RISC-V market develops.

 

[ddoraemon4699]

Hello i really dont understand the hold thing please some give me a tutor on details on how intel 86× can detact what and all

 

[hotaru.hino]

Hello i really dont understand the hold thing please some give me a tutor on details on how intel 86× can detact what and all

If you're asking how Intel could figure out if someone was stealing their IP, they would just have to run the undocumented instruction that they specifically marked on a processor they suspected was copying their design. If the instruction behaved the same as Intel designed it for their processors, they had a good case that someone copied their processor without permission.

It's a similar tactic for map makers. They'd sometimes contain deliberate errors (misspellings, fake locations, etc) as "copyright traps." If someone copied the entire map wholesale, they'd also include the errors, which was evidence enough the person simply copied the map.

 

[Maxor1]

When you can't beat them, sue them.

3dfx -> sues nvidia
Creative Labs & nvidia -> sue individual developers for reenabling hardware.

There's no way that Intel being the awesome company they are would ever do something like engage in deceptive or market manipulation practices to change illegally or unethically harm their competition. Which leads me to ask, has Intel ever gotten around to paying Advanced Micro Devices the penalties awarded them by the EU? How is Via doing in the x86 market these days?

Part of why Intel is as concerned about corporate espionage and intellectual property as they are is because they are very aggressive in hitting the other guys.

 

[hotaru.hino]

Which leads me to ask, has Intel ever gotten around to paying Advanced Micro Devices the penalties awarded them by the EU?

If they haven't, I'm pretty sure we would've heard something about this again. Keep in mind that payments like this aren't often lump sums, but over time.

How is Via doing in the x86 market these days?

Existing

Part of why Intel is as concerned about corporate espionage and intellectual property as they are is because they are very aggressive in hitting the other guys.

You kind of have to be in the market they're in.

The thing is with IP protection, if you don't enforce it, then you're opening yourself up to some other company with the manufacturing capabilities to take your ideas and undercut you since you had to spend a lot of money for R&D and manufacturing, while the other company only had to spend money for manufacturing (more or less). I'm sure AMD is just as protective of their processor IP as Intel, but Intel's the easier target to pick on.

 

[bit_user]

There's no way that Intel being the awesome company they are would ever do something like engage in deceptive or market manipulation practices to change illegally or unethically harm their competition.

This was in 1978, though. Intel was just 10 years old, at the time. A very different company in a very different world.

How is Via doing in the x86 market these days?

These days, it seems they're working with Chinese mainland entities to produce x86 CPUs mostly for the Chinese market. There have been some interesting claims about some of them, such as using entirely homegrown IP[1], rather than anything derived from Certaur (defunct)[2].

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhaoxin
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centaur_Technology

 

[digitalgriffin]

The thing is with IP protection, if you don't enforce it, then you're opening yourself up to some other company with the manufacturing capabilities to take your ideas and undercut you since you had to spend a lot of money for R&D and manufacturing, while the other company only had to spend money for manufacturing (more or less). I'm sure AMD is just as protective of their processor IP as Intel, but Intel's the easier target to pick on.

The courts also tend to be less forgiving about it as well. If you let another competitor copy your designs for 10 years, and then throw a fit later in court because their designs are starting to really sell, the court is going to look at you and go "Why didn't you enforce this 10 years ago"