Patent trolling is usually the last gasp of a failing business. Which implies that despite (or because of) their overpriced hardware they are failing as a manufacturer; GPus are now commodity items and the margins no longer exist to run their type of high-margin business.
Patents are a cruel abomination which distort the workings of a "free market"; they directly codify rentier behaviour which costs society both economical and technological progress. The only beneficiaries are the unproductive leeches of society at the cost of everyone else.
If you're an engineer or scientist who is currently using or considering cuda for your work I suggest you reconsider both to protest this failure of a strategy and to protect the future value of your work.
Just for nvidia to consider this strategy shows they are not long for this world and choosing to use such a single-supplier would be foolhardy.
1 comment:
join this to stop NVIDIA's monopoly:
https://www.reddit.com/r/HPC/comments/8bxp0f/wake_up_call_dear_developers_please_stop_using/?st=jfxq7o6d&sh=bc62412e
wake up call: dear developers please stop using vendor specific APIs
Dear developers and scientists, Please stop using vendor specific APIs like CUDA. Do you really like to live in a world ruled by just one company. The one company who dictates you what hardware you have to buy and when you will receive an upgrade for it? A world without any competition. NVIDIA is heading towards a monopoly in the GPU market and it will not be good for any of us.
I know it is the main stream API for GPU programing but you are helping a monopoly. I understand the alternatives (OpenCl, OpenGL compute shaders and later Vulkan ...) are not as good, but we have to pay the price.
If you are using any library, SDK, package or software which includes CUDA code, I encourage you to switch to OpenCL alternatives. And if you are developing in CUDA please switch to OpenCL, before it is too late.
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