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Nvidia's focus for Computex revealed

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Thursday, 21 May 2009, 15:01

NVIDIA WILL BE heavily plugging GPU computing, Tegra, and Ion at this year's Computex in Taipei, whilst leaving talk of core-logic chipsets for the mainstream and performance segments by the wayside.

Sources close to Nvidia say the firm will continue to bang on about what its CEO, Jen-Hsun Huang sees as the omnipotent GPU as well as using Quadro and Tesla to perform tasks usually left to the CPU.

Nvidia spinners have apparently been ordered to wax lyrical at any given opportunity about how new features in Windows 7 and Mac OS Snow Leopard will finally be able to take advantage of GPU computing by automatically off-loading certain functions to the GPU and giving programmers more access to it.

The Green Goblin apparently also plans a Computex push to promote its tiny computer-on-a-chip, Tegra, especially with regard to netbooks and embedded applications, after hardly mentioning it at all over the past nine months.

Of course, just how competitive Nvidia can make Tegra - basically a processor derived from the ARM chip architecture family - look, compared with some of the newer ARM Cortex A9 processors from ST and TI, remains to be seen.

Sources INQform us that Nvidia is being noticeably quiet about any new core-logic chipsets for mainstream and performance PCs, although apparently the firm does want to push its much hyped Ion chip into ultra thin notebooks and some mainstream machines. Bizarrely, or not considering Nvidia's recent near clashes with Intel, the Goblin is making quite the effort not to associate Ion with smaller, cheaper netbooks.

Earlier this week we reported that Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang was accusing Intel of underpricing its Atom processor and chipset combo in order to lure OEMs away from buying Nvidia's Ion chipset. Intel flogs individual Atom processors to OEMs for $45 apiece, but drops that price to just $25 when paired with a matching Intel chipset, Huang charged.

The INQ learned an Ion chipset costs OEMs about $30, so computer makers who want to build Ion netbooks would be better off buying an Atom chipset combo, stripping out the Intel chipset and replacing it with Ion for a grand total of about $55, over twice the price of Intel's combined offering, versus paying the full price of $45 for Intel's Atom chip plus $30 for Nvidia's Ion chipset for a total cost of $75.

Hmmm... Unfair? Huang may well have a point. µ

See Also
Nvidia attacks Intel over pricing advantage

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Comments
Combo?

There is something fishy about this $45- $25 Atom discount. Nobody ever explicitly said whether for $25 you get the whole combo or just the Atom CPU. It could very well be that you pay $25 for the CPU and another undisclosed ammount for the chipsets. Remember, Jen-Hsun himself came up with these values, the meaning may have been skewed a lottle.

posted by : cherullo, 21 May 2009 Complain about this comment
InSide Beasts GUTS....

Some of reasoning May been figured out here by Charlie & Company. First, Netbooks till Now ARE Atom. So NOT Much Point to Ride that until Now for Jens.

Second, As Charles mentioned in 4 or maore articles, Nvidia had Problems. Nvidia Didn't Invent Open GL, As pundit observed, So When Microsoft Went To Creating Vista Based Upon Open GL, Microsoft had to go To Rights Holder, NOT RIAA, NOT US Congress, actual Inventor & Its Code was In Variation With Nvidias ?Stolen OpenGL. So From Moment One nvida & Vista HAD Conflict that Took time to resolve. Remeber atom is Xp.

Nvidia Continues to languish as IT ?Deserves In WASTELAND Of XP. Only THOMAS STEWART Knows truth.
PURE Dakotian Indian Prophet Ultee' IS Sleeping....7,3,13,8 & 10 ARE Winners.Execute Rest.

posted by : vondrashek, 21 May 2009 Complain about this comment
Unfair? Nope

Ion platform is double the price of Intel's Atom platform. So? Different things, different prices.

Intel offers discount when you buy both chipset and Atom. So?
There's nothing wrong in bundle discounts.

You're a moron, just like Jen-Hsun. Stop spewing bullshit.

INQ is going down. I can see why mageek left. Charlie's analyses (except his MS bashing) are pretty much the only thing left.

posted by : ssj4Gogeta, 21 May 2009 Complain about this comment
cherullo has a point

.

posted by : ssj4Gogeta, 21 May 2009 Complain about this comment
monkey business

1 processor = 45$
2 processors + 2 chipsets = 50$
--------------------------------
1 processor + 2 chipsets = 5$

posted by : gaylord, 21 May 2009 Complain about this comment
Hi ssj4Gogeta

Just wanted to share a theory with you that I've come up with based on this and the many, many other comments you've felt it necessary to pass.

When trying to make a point it is best to avoid calling other people morons. The reason for this is that when one does so, it is oneself that ends up appearing the moron.

Of course I am not calling you a moron because were I to do that then I would be insulting myself... That said there is no need for me to say anything, seeing as you spend so much time telling everyone yourself anyway.

Nevermind.

posted by : Brendan, 21 May 2009 Complain about this comment
ssj4Gogeta = Intel PR Nick Knupffer

Who everyone knows is a complete moron

posted by : moronhater, 21 May 2009 Complain about this comment
Ion for nano ?

Nvidia should have developed ion for nano instead.

posted by : polo, 21 May 2009 Complain about this comment
WTF

"would be better off buying an Atom chipset combo, stripping out the Intel chipset and replacing it with Ion for a grand total of about $55, over twice the price of Intel's combined offering, versus paying the full price of $45 for Intel's Atom chip plus $30 for Nvidia's Ion chipset for a total cost of $75."

The ATOM costs $25 with the bundle, not the entire bundle! Not to mention that the Atom comes soldered to the chipset in the bundle so separating them would be a difficult task.

posted by : Natfly, 21 May 2009 Complain about this comment
Hi Brendan

Let us assume that you are right.

Since everyone loves their lives, I think it's safe to assume that moronhater loves himself too. But since moronhater implies that I'm a moron, that creates a contradiction (because then, by your statement, he becomes a moron too, so he'd have to hate himself, which he doesn't).

This means both of you can't be right at the same time. That leaves us with 3 possibilities.

1) You're right and moronhater is wrong. Since moron hater is wrong, people don't know that I'm a moron. But since you know that people who call others morons are themselves morons, and you know that I call others morons, you know that I'm a moron. So this is a contradiction.

2) You're wrong and moronhater is right. If you're wrong, I'm not a moron. But moronhater says everyone knows I'm a moron. There are 6.7 billion people in the world. So the possibility of that every one of them is wrong, is very near to zero. So this is a contradiction too.

3) Both of you are wrong. That means that I'm not a moron and people don't know I'm a moron. No contradiction here. So this is the only possible case.

Of course you could say that it's not probable, but still possible that case 2) is correct. In which case I'm not a moron but everyone thinks wrongly that I am one.

In either case, I'm not a moron.

posted by : ssj4Gogeta, 21 May 2009 Complain about this comment
@ ssj4Gogeta

I didn't bother with your last long post man .

Only morons spend their time commenting and pretending they know everything and that they are better than all of those hard working engineers or businessmen .

and only morons would call Charlie's bulls an analysis .. more like monkey talks to me .

the poor bastard have had more wrong biased news than he ever had been to the bathroom .

and only morons would write such a long clueless post , and hopes that anybody would read it .

so long MORON ,

posted by : DavidGraham, 21 May 2009 Complain about this comment
<3

I love flame wars, it makes me all warm and fuzzy inside to see people hate each other for almost no reason other than pride.

posted by : brickling, 21 May 2009 Complain about this comment
What a bundle means

At a downtown Otellini's Burgers:
Burger+Soda Combo....$10
Chicken Nuggets......$5

Clerk says: "Add Chicken Nuggets to your Burger+Soda Combo for only $2!"

Jen Hsun-Huang says: "Intel charges $5 for Nuggets, but when bundled with the combo they charge unfair $2! ZOMG!"

PS: To get the house's special i7burger, you need to buy the special soda, special nuggets and a new table along with it. ;)

posted by : nic, 21 May 2009 Complain about this comment
David,

I never said I'm better than those businessmen, nor did I ever say I know better than those engineers. What I argue always concerns simple logical facts, that anyone can argue about, whether they're well trained scientists, or 18 year old students, like me.

I call Jen-Hsun a moron because I think he is one. Always bashing Intel, without any reason. Never have I ever heard anything from him, except "I'm the best. Intel is trash."

I don't work for Intel, and I'm no Intel fanboy. I had Athlons when AMD was better (one P4 as well), and I buy Intel now that it's better at the price points that I want to buy at. There are some price points where AMD win, and I'd definitely buy AMD if I were to buy in that range. If AMD come out with a processor that's much better than Intel's, I'd immediately switch today.

I defend Intel only when I think they're right, and I have a logical reason to believe so.

I like Charlie's analyses because there's a lot of thinking and original research work there. And the conclusions that he draws do (mostly) logically follow from his arguments. Yes, those conclusions are written in a strong manner, but they're still logical. I hate Barak's rants because it's all very illogical, at least to me.

Thank you, you may as well skip this long post.

posted by : ssj4Gogeta, 22 May 2009 Complain about this comment
Well

@vondrashek - Nvidia reverse engineered OGL to their own hack originally (like most consumer cards back in the day did) until it dealt with OGL directly (which unless you're a complete moron you can look up mate) in later cards / drivers.

@ssj4Gogeta - Jen isn't a moron, unfortunately for Intel, but he is a guy that knows the appearance of weakness in the business world is worse than actual weakness. I don't agree with more than half the stuff the guy says but, having met him, he's smarter than the average bear. Intel isn't perfect either, what with the whole Prescott space heater vs A64 fiasco.

As far as this goes, yeah, Intel is playing the game fast and loose. Illegal? Not entirely sure. Right now Jen, like most people in his position (which is good / bad) just has to prevent Intel from getting too uppity while holding off the remnants of AMD/ATI. Intel has to know that Nvidia dying is a worst case scenario for several years and that's IF they can get Larrabee to perform well. I don't believe Larrabee will be worth sh*t because I'VE been in the business long enough to know the last time Intel had a decent 3D card (i740, for gaming) it was designed completely out of house. Oh and they let that card devolve into the sh*t that is Intel GMA.

I've watched Intel and AMD trade blows for a long time (much longer than ATI / Nvidia / 3dfx / Matrox / et al., did) and know a couple of things about Intel:

1) without a competitor they don't innovate sh*t

2) without a competitor they r4pe their customers

As far as Sylvie's "rants" vs Charlie's, well at least there's not so much invective hatred (not to mention that I'm still waiting for a single GPU ATI solution that beats Nvidia Charlie) that is unfounded. You'd think Nvidia ran over Charlie's dog after violating the sanctity of his home. In fact the Nvidia boycott of the Inq goes back to Fuad who, unlike Charlie, at least owned up when wrong.

Charlie is like one of those reporters that hides a retraction because they can't bear being wrong. Commentary is one thing, fanboi invective without journalistic purpose is another.

posted by : Alex Cross, 22 May 2009 Complain about this comment
Hi again ssj4Gogeta

Just a quick note; you make a good attempt at a logical argument but unfortunately the very foundation is unearthed quite readily by noting the following flaw:

If moronhater's assertion that everyone knows you're a moron is incorrect, this does not mean that everyone knows you're not a moron or even that no one knows that you're a moron. It just means that not everyone knows. There remains the possibility that some people do.

posted by : Brendan, 22 May 2009 Complain about this comment
ssj4Gogeta

Ok, first of all, please all stop calling each other "morons". It is all a bit childish and I'm not sure I quite understand what you're trying to prove to each other. yes, you're all alpha tech males. Woohoo. now please move on.

Second of all, each writer at the INQ has their fans and their haters, as well as a fair share of ambivalent non-carers. Obviously some people, like ssj4Gogeta, care very much which, honestly, I have to say I admire because it takes a lot more energy to care (and bother to comment) than to be ambivalent and not care one way or the other.

We are the INQ. We tell the news with a hint (and sometimes more than a hint) of provocation. No one has ever claimed we are the WSJ or New York Times. We have no aspiration to be. We simply write the news we care about in our own unique style. Sometimes you like it, sometimes you don't. For those of you who don't, I can only say I'm sorry that you don't, and instead of getting your knickers in a twist about it, perhaps you shouldn't read those articles which send your blood pressure through the roof. No one forces you to read anything we write.

To you, ssj4Gogeta, I would like to suggest that if you have such a serious problem with my "illogical" "rants", why not flame me (it will get directly to my inbox) I will read your objections and respond. You can't really get much fairer than that. I can't promise you will find me any more or less illogical or odious afterwards, but at least you will have a chance to give me your opinion and receive a response, and a clarification of my opinions.
The same goes for the rest of you. Feel free to flame.

Right, all that having been said... I'm back off to write the rest of my allocated illogical rants for the day. :) Oh, and cheer up chaps... it's almost the weekend.

posted by : Sylvie, 22 May 2009 Complain about this comment
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