October 7th, 2009
End of the line for NVIDIA chipsets, and that's official
GPU giant NVIDIA has confirmed that the company is putting the brakes on the Nforce chipset line because of legal wranglings with Intel.
According to an spokesman, NVIDIA will “postpone further chipset investments”.
Intel claims that its four-year-old chipset license with NVIDIA doesn’t cover the Nehalem or Core series of CPUs. NVIDIA naturally disagrees with this and as a result is that both parties will fight it out in court sometime in 2010. What’s interesting is that NVIDIA has also halted development on chipsets for AMD processors too. NVIDIA claims that “there is no demand for our chipsets in the AMD platform.” So this could very well be the end of the line for the NVIDIA chipset.
This is an interesting shift for NVIDIA. This, combined with the Fermi announcement (which is basically aimed at the scientific market, and not gamers) seems to indicate that things are changing at NVIDIA. While NVIDIA is claiming that the story on the SemiAccurate that the company is shelving the GTX 260, GTX 275, and GTX 285 and possibly the GTX 295 is “patently untrue,” there can be little doubt that things are changing at NVIDIA.
[UPDATE: This in from NVIDIA:
We've received a number of inquiries recently about NVIDIA's chipset (MCP) business. We'd like to set the record straight on current and future NVIDIA chipset activity.
On Intel platforms, the NVIDIA GeForce 9400M/ION brands have enjoyed significant sales, as well as critical success. Customers including Apple, Dell, HP, Lenovo, Samsung, Acer, ASUS and others are continuing to incorporate GeForce 9400M and ION products in their current designs. There are many customers that have plans to use ION or GeForce 9400M chipsets for upcoming designs, as well.
On AMD platforms, we continue to sell a higher quantity of chipsets than AMD itself. MCP61-based platforms continue to be extremely well positioned in the entry CPU segments where AMD CPUs are most competitive vs. Intel
We will continue to innovate integrated solutions for Intel’s FSB architecture. We firmly believe that this market has a long healthy life ahead. But because of Intel’s improper claims to customers and the market that we aren’t licensed to the new DMI bus and its unfair business tactics, it is effectively impossible for us to market chipsets for future CPUs. So, until we resolve this matter in court next year, we’ll postpone further chipset investments for Intel DMI CPUs.
Despite Intel's actions, we have innovative products that we are excited to introduce to the market in the months ahead. We know these products will bring with them some amazing breakthroughs that will surprise the industry, just as GeForce 9400M and ION have shaken up the industry this year.
We expect our MCP business for both Intel and AMD to be strong well into the future.
More info as it comes in ...]
Stay tuned.
Adrian is a technology journalist and author who has devoted over a decade to helping users get the most from technology. He also runs a popular blog called The PC Doctor. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations
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