nVidia is in an uncomfortable situation; Intel manufacturing has long since diversified into the GPU (with results that are... not very powerful, but nonetheless well integrated into the platforms: the IGP) to the point of becoming the primary market supplier. AMD has also been playing such a game, with results such as the acquisition of ATI (with some pain and difficulty), which allows them to sell high-end solutions such as: motherboard + CPU + GPU. But nVidia, since its inception - owing to the popularity of their graphics cards - has found itself isolated in this area, with no clear method of performing this convergence of CPU & GPU. Some time ago we thought that nVidia would turn to the small player in the x86 CPU market - VIA - but it seems that nVidia has decided to fend for itself... or almost.Some years ago a company was known for its low power x86 CPU: Transmeta. The Crusoe processor family had undeniable qualities in energy saving, but their relatively low performance compared to their Intel and AMD equivalents caused a great decline within the company.
What is their relationship to nVidia? Simply a rumor that nVidia is in negotiations with former Transmeta engineers. The goal would surely be to harness skills in producing x86 chips, to be able to compete on equal terms against Intel and AMD in the years to come.
The future promises to be eventful.
Source: INPAI
KaySL
On: 11/05/09
