Nvidia to quit chipset business
Ricky Morris, DIGITIMES, Taipei [Friday 1 August 2008]
Nvidia has decided to throw in the towel and quit the chipset business, sources close to the situation at one of Taiwan's top motherboard makers have revealed. As the story is told, Nvidia called a meeting earlier this week with its motherboard partners to gauge support for it continuing to develop chipsets in the future.
The motherboard makers' response? Silence.
It is still early days and not all the facts are known at the time of writing, but it is believed Nvidia will transfer the chipset team to working on GPU projects. On the motherboard makers' side, some makers have already canceled upcoming high-end motherboard projects based on the nForce 7-series chipset.
The loss of its chipset business is expected to have a significant impact on Nvidia's GPU business in the short-term. Reception to the nForce 200 chip (BR04) which will enable SLI technology on Intel X58 motherboards has been lukewarm at best, with many makers saying they will not bother adding the chip on their boards. This means Nvidia needs to find a way of licensing and enabling multi-GPU support on motherboards using Intel and/or AMD chipsets fast. Otherwise it will have to cede the top-end of the graphics card market to AMD, which now has the benefit of Crossfire.
The news would also debunk any recent speculation that Apple will be adopting Nvidia chipsets for its upcoming notebook products. It would be unfortunate if Apple really has poured water on the close relationship it has built with Intel over the past few years, only to have its new best friend exit the market before products are even announced.
Categories: Mobo, chipset
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来自台湾某一线主板大厂的消息称，NVIDIA可能会被迫放弃芯片组业务，至少高端部分已经难以为继。
据悉，NVIDIA在本周早些时候和主板合作伙伴进行了一次会谈，以争取对其未来桌面芯片组的继续支持，但主板厂商的回应是——沉默。
虽然NVIDIA宣称已经拿到了Intel QPI总线授权，但在下一代Nehalem平台上并不打算开发新款芯片组，而是借助 nForce 200桥接芯片让Intel X58芯片组获得SLI支持。额外芯片的加入将使得主板厂商不得不重新进行布线设计，大大增加了成本，而且 nForce 200芯片本身发热量巨大，也必须辅以散热手段，这一切都让主板厂商无法接受。
当然，这一切都源于NVIDIA对SLI技术授权的封闭，强迫使其只能运行在自家平台上。如果NVIDIA不尽快设法公开授权，让Intel和/或AMD平台也支持SLI，就必然会在高端主板市场上束手束脚，而多路CrossFireX正是AMD大力发展的领域。
虽然现在就断言NVIDIA芯片组末日已到还为时尚早，但据称NVIDIA已经将芯片组开发力量转向GPU项目。在主板厂商方面，已经有多家生产商取消了nForce 7系列高端芯片组主板的计划，比如DFI、富士康、技嘉等都不打算推出nForce 790i SLI主板。
至于低端整合部分，NVIDIA芯片组表现一直不错，不过这部分市场一向利润微薄，而且竞争非常激烈，特别是AMD近来的表现尤其抢眼，指望这块儿过日子不太现实。
另外最近有消息称
苹果会在今后的笔记本中采用NVIDIA芯片组，现在看来可能性也不大了，毕竟苹果和Intel的关系已经很密切，如果现在转向风雨飘摇的NVIDIA，无疑是得不偿失，这可不是精明的苹果的作风。
回首nForce 2时代创造的辉煌，NVIDIA芯片组落入如此境地委实令人扼腕叹息，也希望NVIDIA能摆正发展策略，重新给用户带来丰富、优秀的芯片组产品，不至于让nForce 790i成为绝唱。
