"IT’S NOT QUITE that un-ambitious”, Nvidia’s CEO Jen –Hsung told journos when asked if Nvision 2008 was trying to compete with the IDF. Frankly, a comparison of the two events may not be entirely fair.

Planners of the IDF (Intel Development Forum) have had 10 years to perfect their annual event, while Nvidia are still relative virgins to the supersized tech extravaganza scene.

Still, now the CPU dust has settled on the Moscone centre in San Francisco, and San Jose’s fountains no longer run toxic looking green, it may be fair to INQuire, was Nvision worth it? And did IDF live up to the hype?

We’ll start with the IDF. Unfortunately, the biggest event on the Intel calendar was slightly anti-climactic. Yes, SpIntel did warble on at length about Nehalem and Larrabee, but released only limited information about the much-awaited processors. Along with an awful lot of ‘work in progress’ – which wasn’t unimpressive in itself, if just yet, unavailable - Chipzilla did insist on banging on about how "MIDs are the future", somewhat redundantly as a roomful of hacks furiously typed away on their little crotchtops and texted each other on their Iphones.

But then there were the keynotes, which although entertaining and flawlessly executed, were more than a little devoid of juicy Intel product news or buzz. This was probably best displayed by a bizarre opening speech by Chipzilla Chairman Craig Barrett -filling in for an absent, holidaying Paul Otellini. Barrett, it seemed, would talk about everything other than his own company and its upcoming product line. Instead, the Chairman chose to focus on the misguided educational policies of the current US administration.

Intel’s CTO, Justin Rattner, managed to steal the keynote limelight with his terrifying yet incredible presentation on Robot intelligence, wireless electricity demos, programmable matter, and ever shrinking chips. But for an encore, Intel hosted Apple alumnus Steve Woz. While much appreciated, the Apple guru spoke about the joys of engineering and his theory of what makes for a happy life. Little was said about the current state of the industry or what to expect in the future. Although many attendees found the omission of new processor information rather frustrating, Intel still managed to razzle dazzle its audience with things like Luxtera, new SSDs, discussions on Nehalem going mobile, more Moore’s law and a lot more besides.

In addition, the IDF’s Maker Faire showed off some of the coolest, most bizarre bits of groovy tech. The awe inspiring demonstration proved that Intel really does care about tech innovation and genius – even if they don't rely on Intel bits and chips. So, all in all, IDF was good. It gave us access, it gave us insight and it gave us an awful lot to look forward to.

The primary difference between the IDF and Nvision 2008 was in style, rather than substance. Intel had done its best to appear professional, while Nvidia chose to let its long greasy hair down for some pimply unfocused fun and games (or gaming, rather). To be sure, Nvidia was quick to remind attendees that the event was 'a conference for the visual computing industry as a whole', rather than an “Nvidia Developers Forum”.

But, with all transport organised by Nvidia, invites sent out by Nvidia, Nvidia PRs as a first point of contact for hacks, and green fountains galore, well, lets just say we’re not surprised Intel and AMD didn’t show up, despite Jen-Hsun’s repeated chorus of “Well, we did invite them”.

Nevertheless, despite gathering an impressive crowd, Nvidia failed to use the opportunity to reveal new hardware specs or discuss industry information. Instead, the company contented itself with showing puerile 3D films and wheeling out aging astronauts such as Buzz Aldrin and Eileen Collins.

Sexy non-tech celebrities, including Tricia Helfer of Battlestar Galactica fame and Nascar racer Kyle Busch, also helped pass the time by making much-awaited cameo appearances for the masses. However, some attendees enjoyed the festive atmosphere and folksy speeches.

John Peddie, for example, noted that the “excitement [level] at Nvision was much higher than IDF”. Peddie explained that he preferred a “vertical show” like Nvision to “the massive Comdex-like shows of Computex, CeBIT, CES, etc”.

Our own INQpression was that if we had asked the almighty J-H what he had wanted to achieve with Nvision, his best answer would have been "just to have a show." But that’s not to say Nvision didn’t bring any good ideas to the table. Or that it didn’t visually stun attendees, whilst showing off a plethora of diverse visual computing products.

Rather, it’s just a question of whether or not it was a good use of Nvidia’s shareholders’ money, and it would be interesting to know what exactly Nvidia got out of it, except maybe a bit of profile. We felt it was disappointing that Nvidia didn’t feel the urge to spread its two-year roadmap on the table for all the world to see (as Intel did), but the firm did manage to create a bit of a buzz around visual computing, and if that was the point, then it didn’t fail miserably.

So, bravo. Hopefully, however, by next year, the confused, moody teenager of an event will have decided what it wants to be when it grows up. µ