NVidia Reportedly Will Exit Chipset Business

xav_jones sends along a story from X bit Laboratories claiming that NVidia is ready to quit making chipsets. That story links one from DigiTimes, which reports that NVidia has denied that it's getting out of the business. "[NVidia] is about to quit chipset business, which automatically means that the company's much-hyped multi-GPU SLI technology is either in danger or re-considered. Moreover, several mainboard makers have already ceased making high-end NVidia-based mainboards. [NVidia has]... reportedly decided to quit core-logic business to concentrate on development of graphics processors and following failure to secure license to build and sell chipsets compatible with Intel Corp.'s microprocessors that use Quick-Path Interconnect bus."

Comments

Damn

[Enderandrew]

Nvidia released nice overclocking tools, had good BIOS options, nice features (such a firewall built directly into the NIC), etc.

I always buy NForce chipsets.

Nvidia Says: Bullshit; Chipset Business Strong

[AbsoluteXyro]

Is the correct title to this story. See here. "The story on Digitimes is completely groundless. We have no intention of getting out of the chipset business."

"Mercury Research has reported that the Nvidia market share of AMD platforms in Q2'08 was 60%," Del Rizzo said. "We have been steady in this range for over two years."

"We're looking forward to bring new and very exciting MCP products to the market for both AMD and Intel platforms," Del Rizzo added.

Ars Technia says this isn't true...

[metalcup]

Joel Hruska at Ars Technia appears to have spoken to NVidia, and the article he's written says NVidia is not going to quit the chipset market anytime soon. Looks like its just a rumor... http://arstechnica.com/journals/hardware.ars/2008/08/01/nvidia-to-ars-were-not-leaving-the-chipset-market

Dubious at best.

[bluephone]

Successful companies don't usually just pack it in and go home in market segments they've been in for a long time. Sure there are issues with some chipsets and certain features, but they're not going to just call it a day. Also, "failure to secure license"? So, what, Intel said "You can only make one bid to get a license," and nVidia failed and now quits? What about "ongoing negotiations"? This is for some IP, this isn't like the Yahoo-MS deal. It's in Intel's best interest to license QPI to nVidia, because it means more sales of Intel CPUs.

It appears this story is bogus

[SpaceLifeForm]

Link

Nvidia (NSDQ:NVDA) has asked Digitimes for "a full retraction" of a story appearing Friday in the tech journal that claims the Santa Clara, Calif.-based graphics chip maker "has decided to throw in the towel and quit the chipset business."

Link

Nvidia said Friday that there's no truth to a Taiwan report that claims it's exiting the chipset business.

That report was published by Digitimes, a normally fairly reputable IT publication that claimed that Nvidia met with its main motherboard clients this week and asked for support for its next-generation chipsets.

The motherboard makers' response? Silence.

Although such a withdrawal would be highly unlikely, ExtremeTech asked Nvidia for comment. "The story on Digitimes is completely groundless. We have no intention of getting out of the chipset business," said Bryan Del Rizzo, a company representative, in a statement. (The same statement was later resent as an official company statement.)

Re:It appears this story is bogus

[Anonymous Coward]

Apple announced today that it will stop selling actual products and will only sell hype, in pretty packages of course.

Re:It appears this story is bogus

[j01123]

It's like IBM stopping all work with Java or Starbucks announcing it will no longer sell baked goods at its stores

or, Slashdot will only post stories after they've been fact-checked.

Re:It appears this story is bogus

[hairyfeet]

Let us look at the facts. 1. The inquirer,in a story I submitted over a day ago and is still rotting in pending BTW,reported that a several vendors are dropping the 790i chipset due to data corruption issues. 2. Nvidia has had a bad run of chips lately,and since the 790i boards are being pulled,it looks like that bad run is across the board(no pun intended). 3. Nvidia makes a BUTTLOAD of money from SLI,as there are way too many gamers that like having dual Nvidia monsters if nothing else for the bragging rights. 4. And finally the ONLY way you can go Nvidia SLI is with an Nforce board,which even with the economic downturn is still a VERY popular seller,at least it was last time i looked at the sales numbers.

So I think it is quite safe to say that the article is BS. BTW,if you want to read the inquirer story about the canceled 790i boards and which manufacturers are involved,it is right here. But considering they had to set aside 150 million for repairs and replacements of mobile GPUs,to kill the Nforce which is the only way they can sell two high priced boards to the same customer frankly would be suicide. The last thing they would do is a move like this that would make them look weak after the mobile GPU fiasco. So even if they have come up with some way to add SLI to a single board by some kind of drop in chip most likely they'd wait until the whole mobile GPU mess has blown away. But as always this is my 02c,YMMV

Re:It appears this story is bogus

[Kamokazi]

Look at the editor who posted it...you suprised? Time to bust out the kdawsonfud tag.

Re:Ties between chipset and CPU

[Vanders]

If you notice, what you have is essentially four companies, who break down as:

1. Intel, who have their own CPU, chipset & video
2. AMD, who have their own CPU, chipset & video
3. Via, who have their own CPU, chipset & video
4. nVidia, who have their own chipset and video

Notice the odd one out? What do you think the logical long-term plan should be, if you were nVidia?