Nvidia close to Intel Pentium 4 chipset

GEMMA TELLS me over a Chardonnay - and no, we weren't sitting in the snow in Minnesota - that it won't be long before the fabled Nforce 5 chipset for an Intel processor appears.

Course, the NV40, she says, will be PCI Express enabled and Chipzilla is pushing with all its might to force it to be the dominant standard not next year but this year.

Intel and Nvidia are chummier than they've ever been, says G, while the little problem over a license for chipsets appears to have been smoothed over. NVDA, it just doesn't need one.

But, adds G, don't think that just because NV40 will be PCI Express enabled means there won't be an AGP variant too. Yet if Nvidia undercuts the price of the AGP variant with a PCI Express version, well...

The fabled Nforce 5 will be offered at a cost that will let Nvidia go and cock a snook at its pals at ATI and Via, she reckons.

And she's usually right about these things... µ