Nvidia CEO on x86 Project: "Haven't Found It Yet"
Is Nvidia working on a CPU?
With both Intel and AMD working towards integrating GPU and CPU together, Nvidia is left standing on its own with its graphics specialty. This lead to rumors that Nvidia was looking to get into the x86 processor business and going head to head with its already-big competitors.
Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang told the New York Times that if such a project was going on at his company, he hasn’t found it yet.
“If we have such a product, I haven’t found it yet,” Mr. Huang said. “It’s just not important right now.”
Obviously even if there was work on an x86 CPU at Nvidia (and the CEO managed to find it), Huang still wouldn’t be one to reveal the news in a single interview.
If Nvidia isn’t working on a special x86 project in house, it could partner with Via Technologies, which does hold an x86 license from Intel – a key piece to the puzzle. Nvidia is rumored to be investing heavily into Via – something also denied by Huang. At any rate, we’ll know for sure at Via’s investor meeting later this month.
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I think Nvidia is in for a big shock in a few years if it's not careful. Intel is already the largest gfx contender and along with AMD/ATI chewing at their heels they could find their market vanishing quickly when gfx/cpu integrated chips arrive.
I see the future as the average Joe/big oems going Intel for their cheap solution and known brand and the smart consumer/enthusiast going AMD for their soulution (imagine your ATI gfx pcie card only powered on when playing intense 3d games and the rest of the time your making massive power saving by using the integrated cpu/gfx combo.)
Maybe then we'll see a Intel Nvidia takeover :-(
@rtfm - I like the idea of a system that only sucks up power when needed. I want laptop tech in my desktop. It will save me a lot of beer money
I fail to see how this will impend on Nvidia. The truth is, the integrated CPU/GPU chip will still be not as powerful as what Nvidia already offers. We're not going to get 1Teraflops from an integrated GPU anytime soon. The only competition that's biting at Nvidia's feet is the fact that they'll have a big issue with their integrated graphics in their chipset business and perhaps that Larrabee graphics card in 2010.
The problem for nvidia comes because more powerful graphics cards offer a diminishing return of percieved visual quality, whereas the integrated chipsets are improving rapidly in the background. When 90% of the public sees games of Crysis visual quality as "good enough" and developers cannot actually afford to make anything more impressive anyway and integrated chips are capable of handling it (2years from now?) then why bother buying a discrete card?
I'd buy an Nvidia CPU.
It'll complement my Nvidia chipset motherboard and Nvidia graphics cards.