Nvidia NV30: too late for Christmas rush?

As we revealed earlier this week, that will give ATI a clear four months advantage over Nvidia and it's likely that the latter won't get its 120 million competitive product to market in time before the Christmas season.

Nvidia has been very low key here at Computex this week, ensconced as it was in the Formosa Regent hotel, a fair way away from the conference centre.

Although its NV30 taped out very recently, it will have to move heaven and earth in order to deliver that technology by October or maybe even November.

Perhaps heaven and earth may be moved, but we reckon that's unlikely. You'll remember that when Nforce was launched at Computex last year, it took it a little while to get its act together and one suit from HP in Europe told us then that he was cross he couldn't include the technology into his own retail products.

Still, ATI and Nvidia are playing a tit for tat game, and in this business you may have the lead for some time, only to lose it again as little as five or six months later.

Although ATI was reputed to be a little cross about pictures of its R300 appearing on Via's stand, there were R300s all over the place at Computex.

Giving us the definite impression that perhaps this was a deliberate ploy by ATI to taunt Nvidia in its own Canadian way.

And it was also noticeable that ATI was also keeping a low profile. When the hustle and bustle gets too much down on the old show floor, you don't want to get hit by the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, do you?

* THE NVIDIA executive who didn't want ATI technology exposing his children to such a corrupting influence has relented. We're told by his missus that he's prepared to let his kids savour the delights of ATI graphics just as long as the Canadians ship him a Gamebox for nothing. As Eva Glass would say, "Sheesh!"