Nvidia Halts Chipset Developments

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HardLiner

Gawd
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Nvidia can't seem to stay out of the news lately..

A legal dispute has prompted Nvidia to cease developing chipsets for the foreseeable future

Nvidia, in the midst of legal dispute with Intel, has announced today that any further development of Nforce chipsets are on hold. Intel claims that Nvidia’s license to produce motherboard chipsets supporting Intel processors does not include the Core series of CPUs. Nvidia will pursue the matter in court.

Lead corporate communications spokesman for Nvidia, Robert Sherbin, stated: “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."

Nvidia has also halted development on chipsets supporting AMD processors. The recently announced Nvidia Fermi architecture appears to be more focused on scientific applications, including a number of features that aren’t of much use to the gaming segment.

This has sparked speculation that Nvidia is pulling out of the mid and high-end discrete GPU market, but Sherbin, brushed off the remarks as "patently untrue." Sherbin also said that “[Nvidia] will continue to [develop] integrated solutions for Intel's FSB architecture,” but only pending the outcome of the legal dispute.

Intel has GPU/CPU combination processors on the way in the form of the Clarkdale and Arrandale. They are also developing their own discrete GPU, the Larrabee. AMD/ATI has just released their new Cypress GPU architecture in the form of the HD5870 and HD5850.
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http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2353939,00.asp

http://mybroadband.co.za/news/Hardware/9925.html
 
No surprise here,not having a license for the latest Intel CPUs pretty much cripples their chipset business.Even if they had one,with SLI no longer being exclusive to their boards it doesn't give people much incentive to buy them given the problems that plagued Nvidia's boards in the recent past.They'd be better off concentrating all their efforts on their GPU business.
 
tesfaye said:
+1
I don't care what anybody says, SoundStorm was the shit!
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Why would they discontinue that? The 10$ premium it must have cost per board is nothing compared to the less useful bells and whistles they put on broads these days.
 
GJSNeptune said:
Ha. Oldie has my NF7-S!
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Yep loved my NF7-S v2 with the Barton 2500+ Athlon XP...well loved it when the drivers were stable at least which was very rarely. NV's IDE driver in those days never functioned.

On topic though...

Queue the rumors of NV purchasing VIA again.
 
Vermillion said:
Yep loved my NF7-S v2 with the Barton 2500+ Athlon XP...well loved it when the drivers were stable at least which was very rarely. NV's IDE driver in those days never functioned.

On topic though...

Queue the rumors of NV purchasing VIA again.
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Ok......that makes little sense when VIA has been out of chipset manufacturing for quite some time. With nvidia out of the market, we now only have the chipsets from the respective CPU manufacturers (AMD, Intel).
 
I say oh well. They have bigger fish to fry. I mean, their last really good chipset was the damn NForce 2
 
compuguy1088 said:
Ok......that makes little sense when VIA has been out of chipset manufacturing for quite some time. With nvidia out of the market, we now only have the chipsets from the respective CPU manufacturers (AMD, Intel).
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You're missing the bigger picture.

VIA CPU manufacturing. This was rumored in the past when NV first started having issues with Intel over the license for chipsets of the Core i chips.

NV purchases VIA and starts creating its own CPU thus eventually facing AMD and Intel on an "equal" footing in terms of what they can produce and sell.

I'm not saying NV could immediately pop out a CPU to compete with Phenom II X4 or Core i7 but think about the HTPC and low/mid-range market or laptop markets to start with. Low power and decent performance all for a low price. Get a foot in the door and have a good solid product. Grow from that.

I doubt NV would ever pull the trigger on purchasing VIA but still it is an interesting thought...
 
Obi_Kwiet said:
Why would they discontinue that? The 10$ premium it must have cost per board is nothing compared to the less useful bells and whistles they put on broads these days.
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"Never call chics broads"

And if you can tell me where that quote is from... you get a gold star... :p
 
Vermillion said:
You're missing the bigger picture.

VIA CPU manufacturing. This was rumored in the past when NV first started having issues with Intel over the license for chipsets of the Core i chips.

NV purchases VIA and starts creating its own CPU thus eventually facing AMD and Intel on an "equal" footing in terms of what they can produce and sell.

I'm not saying NV could immediately pop out a CPU to compete with Phenom II X4 or Core i7 but think about the HTPC and low/mid-range market or laptop markets to start with. Low power and decent performance all for a low price. Get a foot in the door and have a good solid product. Grow from that.

I doubt NV would ever pull the trigger on purchasing VIA but still it is an interesting thought...
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*Facepalm* I forgot about that possiblity.....
 
Vermillion said:
You're missing the bigger picture.

VIA CPU manufacturing. This was rumored in the past when NV first started having issues with Intel over the license for chipsets of the Core i chips.

NV purchases VIA and starts creating its own CPU thus eventually facing AMD and Intel on an "equal" footing in terms of what they can produce and sell.

I'm not saying NV could immediately pop out a CPU to compete with Phenom II X4 or Core i7 but think about the HTPC and low/mid-range market or laptop markets to start with. Low power and decent performance all for a low price. Get a foot in the door and have a good solid product. Grow from that.

I doubt NV would ever pull the trigger on purchasing VIA but still it is an interesting thought...
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Umm, if I remember correctly, an x86 license does not transfer if the company holding it gets bought out. That was the basis behind Intel's complaint against AMD when GlobalFoundries got up and running I think? Even if Nvidia buys VIA they still won't be able to produce x86 chips. They'd have to do what VIA and AMD did and sue Intel for a license.
 
King of Heroes said:
Umm, if I remember correctly, an x86 license does not transfer if the company holding it gets bought out. That was the basis behind Intel's complaint against AMD when GlobalFoundries got up and running I think? Even if Nvidia buys VIA they still won't be able to produce x86 chips. They'd have to do what VIA and AMD did and sue Intel for a license.
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No, that wasn't Intel's complaint. AMD is keeping the x86 license, and only outsourcing the finalized designs for production at GlobalFoundries. Intel was complaining that the x86 license with AMD had a clause preventing more than X percent outsourcing of production, and the %100 outsourcing of production to GlobalFoundries piseed them off.

But I agree, from what I've read, the x86 license will not transfer with the purchase of Via. I already thought of this purchase years ago, and was told it couldn't happen for this reason. After the purchase, Nvidia would have to renegotiate the terms, and with the animosity Intel has been showing, it's unlikely the could get a pass without surrendering something impressive (like, say, an SLI license for all Intel chipsets). After all, these license negotiations always end with some modicum of patent cross-licensing, where each side ponys-up.

Right now, Nvidia's only growth direction is down, into the world of Tegra. But that's no walk in the park either, as there are established ARM chipset vendors.
 
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defaultluser said:
No, that wasn't Intel's complaint. AMD is keeping the x86 license, and only outsourcing the finalized designs for production at GlobalFoundries. Intel was complaining that the x86 license with AMD had a clause preventing more than X percent outsourcing of production, and the %100 outsourcing of production to GlobalFoundries piseed them off.

But I agree, from what I've read, the x86 license will not transfer with the purchase of Via. I already thought of this purchase years ago, and was told it couldn't happen for this reason. After the purchase, Nvidia would have to renegotiate the terms, and with the animosity Intel has been showing, it's unlikely the could get a pass without surrendering something impressive (like, say, an SLI license for all Intel chipsets). After all, these license negotiations always end with some modicum of patent cross-licensing, where each side ponys-up.

Right now, Nvidia's only growth direction is down, into the world of Tegra. But that's no walk in the park either, as there are established ARM chipset vendors.
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There are always loop holes. NV could always just invest money into VIA for the R&D. That way they don't actually breach the x86 license agreement. Bottom line is if NV wanted to pull the trigger they could find a way to do it legally.

Like i said earlier though I don't expect it to happen but it's still a very interesting thought.
 
Starting next year Nvidia will not be able to sell chipsets for AMD Opteron microprocessors, Intel Core i3/i5/i7 series processors with or without integrated graphics, next-generation Intel Atom chips code-named Pineview and so on.
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http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/mainbo...dia_Halts_Development_of_Core_Logic_Sets.html

Whats next? AMD and Intel boards will not function if it detects a Nvidia GPU? :mad:

Again those big companies are screwing with us consumers for their "business and quality reasons". Soon we'll probably have a couple of posters telling us why we should "bend over and take it", while defending a company actively blocking competitors
 
Good riddance, Nvidia's last few chipset options were nothing but garbage. This is what they get for trying to play bully against Intel. They tried to bite the hand that fed them the license for their chipsets and they got bitchslapped out of the whole market. And now not even VIA will take them back because Nvidia used VIA as leverage against Intel. Also if you think that Nvidia can simply walk in and buy VIA off you are sorely mistaken. VIA produces far more than just chipsets.
 
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