Wouldn't it be x86-64 rather than x86 patents which are due to expire next year? It's weird that we've seen no interest so far in an open source reimplementation of x86 16-bit or 32-bit. You would think that it ought to garner quite a bit of interest among retrocomputing enthusiasts, if nothing else.
I'm sure there's tons of patents, but the p6 core came out in 1995 and most of the 32 bit stuff predates that and has all been patent free for quite a while. I guess if you're building your own processor, why make an x86?
