NVIDIA To Exit Chipset Business

The rumor that we discussed a few months back is looking more real. Vigile writes "Once the darling of the enthusiast chipset market, NVIDIA has apparently decided to quit development of future chipsets for all platforms. This 'state of NVIDIA' editorial at PC Perspective first highlighted the fact that the company was backing away from its plans to develop a DMI-based chipset for Intel's Lynnfield processors due to legal pressure from Intel and debates over licensing restrictions. That effectively left NVIDIA out in the cold in terms of high-end chipsets, but even more interesting is the later revelation that NVIDIA has only one remaining chipset product to release, what we know as ION 2, and that it was mainly built for Apple's upcoming products. NVIDIA still plans to sell its current offerings, like MCP61 for AMD platforms and current generation ION for netbooks and nettops, but will focus solely on discrete graphics options after this final release."

Comments

Intel?

[_PimpDaddy7_]

Do we get mad at Intel?

This is a sad day.

Competition is good, I'm sorry.

Re:Intel?

[noundi]

Do we get mad at Intel?

This is a sad day.

Competition is good, I'm sorry.

This is competition. Just not one of the occasions that you like.

WebGL

[tepples]

Do we get mad at Intel?

Yes. Intel hasn't produced a competitive GPU for its integrated graphics. This will become painfully apparent once web sites start to use JavaScript bindings for OpenGL ES.

Re:WebGL

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm not looking forward to that day. Everything done with JavaScript so far has sucked filthy penises.

Take the stupid comment slider here at Slashdot, for example. The old non-AJAX approach worked just fine. You didn't have to click "More" and then wait, click "More" and then wait, etc. hundreds of times just to see all of the comments.

And you could view the -1 comments easier, as well. Even now I still don't know how to show the hidden comments. The piece of shit sidebar panel says "# Hidden", but I pull on the dragger thing and it refuses to move! The other one works fine, though.

I see the equation as being:
Idiot Web Developers + JavaScript + OpenGL ES = Totally Fucking Horrible Web Sites Which Make Me Want to Cry

Re:Intel? Probably Not.

[mpapet]

I would argue Intel's strength relies a little on the U.S. intellectual property laws and procedures. If the country loosened intellectual property law, Nvidia might have a chance in hell.

But this is also about a global market where 80% of product comes from maybe 10% of all possible manufacturers and there are few laws preventing Intel from doing all kinds of market shenanigans in places like China.

I know the loosening of intellectual property laws would help Nvidia's case, but I don't think it would bring about a semi-competitive marketplace because this market (global OEM) has few legal constraints.

Not Intel

[Groo Wanderer]

"Do we get mad at Intel?"

Yeah, they made Nvidia look bad by putting out chipset that met spec, survived average use, then had the gall to not hide the fact! (see http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2377) I mean really, how can Intel do business like that? And people wonder why Nvidia is bailing, then trying to hide it before Wall Street notices and downgrades them more.

The story goes like this.
1) Nvidia stops designing future chipsets
2) Nvidia blames Intel for nebulous atrocity
3) Nvidia hides the facts
4) It gets out
5) Nvidia admits it
6) Wall Street notices (several analyst reports out on the subject today)
7) Nvidia realizes that Wall Street noticed
8) Nvidia backpedals, hard, fast, and with all due slime

The 'denial' they are throwing around now states that they are not going to develop AMD chipsets anymore, not going to develop Intel chipsets anymore, and only going to continue selling the ones they have made. Until Intel stops making FSB chips in a few months, then it WILL be Intel's fault somehow.

Back to the original question, can you explain how Nvidia voluntarily stopping design of AMD chipsets is Intel's fault? :)

I saw this a year ago when I saw them stop most if not all future chipset products. I wrote it up. Nvidia denied it. A year later, they announce a stoppage for a few hours until the implications sink in. Then they deny it.

Yup. Intel. Those bastards!

I agree about the competition part, but this isn't sad, it was planned.

                    -Charlie

Finish the drivers, Intel and AMD

[Sloppy]

It looks like long-term, Intel and AMD/ATI are going to be the only games in town. That wouldn't worry me a whole lot, because I think their stuff looks good on paper, and they'll compete. And both of them are slowly advancing their open source drivers. But the key word is "slowly." If, say, you want to buy a machine to use as a MythTV box or something like that, right now NVidia is currently the only one it makes sense to buy. Anybody else, and you're going to have to decode your video with CPU and read promises about how some day you might not have to. I hate reading promises.

I am not looking forward to the day when these two windows of acceptability don't overlap. What happens you want to build a box and neither Nvidia nor Intel not AMD have a product that can actually be used, either because they're gone (Nvidia) or their drivers aren't yet working (Intel and AMD)? That is going to suck.