Nvidia shares could compromise Rumsfeld

IN DISPOSING OF SHARES worth a possible $91 million last year, Donald Rumsfeld sought to divest himself of all possible conflicts of interest between his money making and his position as US Defence Secretary.

In doing so, Rumsfeld chose to retain his shares in leading computer graphics chip company nVidia. Rumsfeld had worked as a consultant for the Santa Clara-based company, so perhaps he kept them out of affection.

But The INQUIRER has learned that nVidia has invested billions of dollars in defence contracts and provides graphic technology to USAF F-22 Air Dominance Fighter Aircraft currently being developed for the US Air Force by Lockheed Martin and Boeing.

Under the Farsight Nv programme announced in London last September, Nvidia and Quantum3D collaborate to equip "commercial and military aircraft, vehicles, vessels and transportable systems with 'smart' displays," which provide "air, ground vehicle and vessel crews, along with soldiers and civilian authorities with realtime graphical, sensor, symbolic and imagery-based information for enhanced safety and operational mission effectiveness." Phew!

Nvidia's Quadro2 Go chips are used in multi-function displays (MFDs) guiding the F-22s Raptors currently under development. The chips are incorporated into designs by Quantum3D under the Farsight nV programme, and specified by Kaiser electronics.

In a statement, Kaiser said it integrates Quantum3D's reference level graphics subsystem into its F-22 MFD design, which requires, it says, "unique form factor for the F-22, along with extensive ruggedisation to address the extreme shock, vibration, wide operating temperature range and conductive cooling requirements of the F-22 avionics suite.

"In addition to the hardware design, continues the statement, "Quantum3D will also provide to Kaiser Electronics versions of the NVIDIA OpenGL(R) 1.2 graphics driver and diagnostic software for the Wind River VxWorks realtime operating system that is employed within the F-22 MFDs." µ