Microsoft kicks Nvidia out of talks

ONE THING YOU CAN SAY ABOUT Graphzilla, as our Fudo calls Nvidia, and that is it sure has guts.

According to the latest scuttlebutt, not only is it not afraid to tell Rambus to get on its bike, as it did last year, but it will cheerfully tell the Great Satan of Software, Microsoft, to go pull its plonker as well.

According to one source, Microsoft has recently held meetings with the major 3D card vendors to flesh out the specifications for the DirectX9 3D API.

Microsoft is rumoured to have asked the vendors to sign an agreement that they'd keep shtum about DirectX9 and not get all proprietary about details.

The word is, and this is a rumour, is that NviDiA refused to sign the agreement and Microsoft "summarily excluded" them from the meeting.

Our source said: "Despite Microsoft's close involvement with NviDiA through the Xbox relationship it would appear that everything is not rosy between the two companies. I've been told that MS were none too impressed when, after they pushed for inclusion of Vertex and Pixel shaders in DX8, NviDiA turned around to MS and said they needed to license that off them. NVIDIA are currently trying to push through patents relating to Vertex Shaders."

NviDiA could not be contacted for a comment at press time. We'll be happy to issue the customary denials, confirmations, and so forth. µ