Nvidia at work on combined CPU with graphic

Charlie wrote about the interesting implications of Nvidia's good fortune in acquiring some folk from Stexar, a company that was known for its X86 marchitectural expertise.

And now we hear that development is underway at Nvidia's just-announced Portland, Oregon, Design Center, where chip folk are beaving away on 45 nanometre designs.

The project should bear fruit sometime in 2008, as Nvidia prepares plans to compete with Intel and AMD on the blended graphic and CPU concept.

This is what OEMs want in 2008. Sixty-five or 45 nanometre processes make this possible and AMD and Intel are going to do it, so Nvidia doesn't have much choice.

It seems Nvidia might remain a feisty player in the years to come, unless someone fanatically swallows it.

Things are certainly heating up. µ