Intel Wants Nvidia Graphics Patents But Not Its Nehalem Chipsets!

March 26, 2009
Nvidias countersuit could force Intel to stop selling its flagship Core 2 microprocessors

Nvidia's countersuit could force Intel to stop selling its graphics chipsets, Nehalem and Larrabee!

Did Intel took over Microsoft as the bad boy of the tech industry?

OK, Microsoft is still facing an EU complaint, but that’s “almost” nothing compare to the lawsuits Intel has attracted: AMD (of course!), South Korea (yep… the country!), the FTC aka the U.S. government, New York state (?), the European Union and today Nvidia.

Before we get into the “meat” of Nvidia’s “breach of contract” complaint, an advice to Intel CEO, Paul Otellini: in this economy, isn’t it better to make friends and mea culpas and move on, rather than accumulate anger, lawsuits and finally being perceived as a bully and a monopolist? If you don’t believe me, ask Steve (Microsoft’s CEO)!

Anyway, back to Nvidia’s lawsuit. The Santa Clara, Calif.-graphics chip maker argues that Intel wants to use its graphics patents in exchange of… nothing!

Intel bans Nvidia to build chipsets for Nehalem

Nvidia claims that Intel is using its graphics patents in the current generation of graphics chipsets and the upcoming Larrabee graphics processor and Nehalem CPU.

“4 years ago, we signed an agreement with Intel that gave them our GPU playbook patents in exchange to connect our chipsets to their CPU. Now they are claiming they can use our patents portfolio, but that we can’t access to their next-generation CPUs [Nehalem],” explains Nvidia’s spokesperson, Bob Sherbin.

Sherbin to add,

“It’s like if you lease a house, but then your landlord decides to build a fence, lock it and don’t give you the keys!”

I’ll be mad too!

To read Intel’s initial filing, go here.

To read NVIDIA’s response and counterclaim, click here.

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Posted by TechPulse 360

Big Changes Coming To The Graphics Chip Business

March 4, 2009

As semiconductor circuits shrink, more and more gets loaded on the CPU, or central processor in a computer. This is increasingly including a graphics chip.

The abrupt change in design is remaking the graphics chip business, and will steadily do away with the graphics chipset, the mainstay of the industry.

Graphics chipsets are going away, but not stand-alone chips, says Jon Peddie Research

Graphics chipsets are going away, but not stand-alone chips, says Jon Peddie Research

In 2008, 67 percent of graphics chips were shipping in integrated chipsets, says Jon Peddie Research. By 2011, only 20 percent will be, the research firm said Wednesday.

This will fall to less than 1 percent by 2013.

The change of direction can be glimpsed already in the product developments at major manufacturers. Advanced Micro Devices is embedding a graphics chip on its computer processors in a development effort called Fusion. Nvidia has strengthened its high-end offerings with its CUDA software and has introduced Tegra combining an ARM processor and Nvidia graphics.

Intel’s first chip with an embedded graphics processor is dubbed Westmere and is expected in the fourth quarter.

Despite the change, stand-alone graphics processors installed separately on the motherboard or another add-in board won’t go away, says Jon Peddie Research. Hybrid PC configurations that use a separate graphics chip could expand the sales of stand-alone chips, says the research firm.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

Intel Expects Atom Sales To Grow 50%; Boosted By Netbook, Smartphone sales

February 18, 2009
The rise of Atom sales could spell trouble for Intel's margins

The rise of Atom sales could spell trouble for Intel's margins

That’s rather a good news in this otherwise morose environment.

In an interview given to Reuters at the Mobile World Congress, the general manager of Intel’s Ultra Mobility Group, Anand Chandrasekher, said it expects sales of the low-power Atom chip to grow 50 per cent in 2009, year-over-year.

Last quarter, Atom sales already jumped 50%, reaching $300 million. And for the same period, Intel’s total sales dropped 23% compare to the year before, at $8.2 billion.

This year, Intel’s Atom chip will find its way in smartphones as well as in MIDs (mobile Internet devices) and netbooks; analysts suggest this rapid growing category to double in size and reach 35 million units in 2009.

Intel wrongly dismisses ARM competition

In the same interview, Chandrasekher dismissed the ARM-based competition – from Freescale, Nvidia, Qualcomm or Texas Instruments – as being architecturally “fragmented”.

Not sure what the Intel exec tried to say, as the most innovative smartphones released so far are all based on ARM cores, including the Apple iPhone. And on the netbook front, ARM licensees are getting ready to ship sub-$200 (and sometimes less) laptops running Windows or Ubuntu Linux.

Some fierce competition ahead for Intel.

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Posted by TechPulse 360

Intel And Nvidia Battle For Position In The Device Market; Nvidia Sees $99 Device

February 16, 2009

Intel and Nvidia are battling for the high ground in the emerging market for pocket-sized Internet devices.

Nvidia expects to see a $99 Internet device

Nvidia expects to see a $99 Internet device

Both chip makers plan to announce new “platforms” – combinations of chips and other circuitry – at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on Monday as they duel to be the favored supplier to manufacturers. Arm Holdings also competes in the market.

The Nvidia announcement comes with the dramatic claim that its Tegra 600 integrated chip will enable always-connected, HD-capable mobile devices that can go for days between charges and which cost only $99.

For its part, Intel is unveiling a key design win for its next generation Moorestown technology with LG Electronics. LG plans to make a pocket-sized mobile Internet device with cell-phone capabilities.

It is expected to reach the market in 2010.

Nvidia says a $99 Tegra-based device could make use of wireless Wi-Fi Internet connections, work with 3G cellular technologies, run Microsoft’s Windows CE operating system, support a Web browser and handle telephone calls. It says the platform has so far attracted the interest of device maker ICD.

The company believes telecom carriers may subsidize the device, offering it for free in exchange for service agreements. Devices should be available in the second half of the year.

Further, Nvidia claims its Tegra technology offers longer battery life and costs less to manufacture than Intel’s Atom chip, which is presently used in low-cost netbooks and mobile devices.

Intel says the LG device also will use 3G cellular technologies to connect online and will run the Linux-based Moblin v2.0 software. Moorestown relies on Intel’s low-cost Atom processor, but reduces power consumption to a tenth of what the present Atom platform requires.

Moorestown is on schedule to launch in 2010, and the LG design is expected to be among the first Moorestown products on the market.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

Nvidia Pushes Into Netbook Market; Ion Certified For Windows Vista

February 11, 2009

Nvidia said it expects netbooks to be available for sale this summer with its low-cost Ion graphics chipset.

Nvidias Ion chipset should be available in netbooks this summer

Nvidia's Ion chipset should be available in netbooks this summer

Netbooks, low-end notebooks typically costing $500 or less, are the fastest growing category of personal computers – and Nvidia doesn’t want to be left out.

The company has been hit hard by the downturn and the soft PC market and badly needs new sources of growth.

Nvidia demonstrated Ion at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show and says it is an ideal companion to Intel’s low-cost Atom computer processor – which helped spawn the netbook market. Some early reviewers agree that the performance is good.

On Wednesday, Nvidia will announce that Ion has been certified for use with Microsoft’s Windows operating system.

This should set the chip on course to be in the market this summer. Nvidia said it expects Ion machines to sell for as low as $299.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

Nvidia Sees Declines Leveling Off But The New Problem Is Inventory

February 10, 2009

The good news from Nvidia is that the market decline underway since November may have come to an end.

The bad news is that the sharp drop in sales left it holding large inventories of graphics chips, some of which will be harder to sell because they were made on the company’s older 65-nm production lines.

Reasonable forecasts are almost impossible, says Marvin Burkett

Reasonable forecasts are almost impossible, says Marvin Burkett

“We believe we have hit a trough,” Marvin Burkett, chief financial officer said Tuesday on a fourth-quarter conference call. “We don’t see further declines in revenue.”

But the company is faced with burning off shelves of excess products before restarting production to its former volume.

The company’s woes are not unusually these days. Computer makers and other chip buyers have been cutting their stocks as demand falls. But their extent of the difficulties at Nvidia seem greater than most.

Nvidia announced Tuesday that fourth-quarter sales tumbled 60 percent and that it fell to a $148 million loss. As a result, the company promises to cut $35 million of quarterly spending and deplete its inventories substantially in the first quarter.

The good news is that customers that last year had three or so months of inventory now have just slightly above 1 month, said Burkett. If all goes according to plan, revenue in the first quarter should be the same as the fourth quarter or slightly greater, he added, as the company fills back up the pipelines. (Analysts had hoped for a $59 million jump.)

But expectations in this environment are dangerous. “In this environment, it is almost impossible to give a reasonable forecast,” he said. “We were wrong last quarter.”

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Posted by Mark Boslet

Graphics Chip Shipments Dive In The Fourth Quarter

January 29, 2009

Following the personal computer market into the dumpster, the shipments of graphics chip dove in the fourth quarter by 28 percent.

For the first time since 2000, shipments fell from the third to the fourth quarters, said Jon Peddie Research.

The research firm said 72.35 million graphics chips were shipped during the period compared with 100.5 million a year ago.

All vendors were hit by the market’s slid. Nvidia’s shipments fell 34 percent while Intel’s tumbled 21 percent and Advanced Micro Devices’ dropped 24 percent. Nevertheless, Nvidia regained lost share, ending the quarter with 31 percent of the market compared with Intel’s 48 percent and AMD’s 19 percent.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

Nvidia Is Latest Company To Point At Sharp Drop In PC Market

January 13, 2009

Nvidia said it fourth-quarter sales will be well below expectations because of weakening demand for its graphics chips, which are installed inside PCs.

Revenue from graphics chips to fall 40% to 50%, Nvidia says

Revenue from graphics chips to fall 40% to 50%, Nvidia says

The chip maker said sales for the three-month period will fall 40 percent to 50 percent from the third quarter. The company had projected about a 5 percent decline in November.

In a press release, the company said that weak demand led its customers to reduce inventories of graphics products.

Analysts had been expecting sales of $805.5 million from the company, but will now have to make due with $448.9 million to $538.6 million.

Other suppliers of components to PCs are feeling the pinch of a tight market as well, including processor maker Intel.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

ASUS Touts ARM-based Netbooks, To Launch Android SmartPhone Next Month

January 7, 2009
asus-jonney-shih-with-jb

ASUS Chairman Jonney Shih with TechPulse 360 editor, Jean-Baptiste Su

At the ASUS press conference last night at CES, Chairman Jonney Shih confirmed to TechPulse 360 the release of the company’s upcoming Android smartphone – the eeePhone – next month, probably at the GSM World Congress show in Barcelona.

“It will be before Cebit,” added Shih.

ASUS is also looking at developing an ARM-based netbook that will enable the Taiwanese company to reach even lower price point than the current Atom-based netbooks.

When asked about the netbook trademark owned by UK-based Psion, Shih countered that “netbook” is now part of the common lingua franca. I guess he didn’t receive Psion’ lawyers papers :)

Although ASUS is an Android developer, Shih remains skeptical of using Google’s mobile operating system on a netbook/notebook.

Finally, the Taiwanese company points to its fairly good relationship with Intel that lets the PC maker quite free to use Intel’s Atom processor with competing graphics chips from Nvidia or ATI. “It’s been over 10 years that we told Intel about their graphics problem. That’s why we’re excited to work with them on Larabee [Intel's upcoming high-end graphics chip],” adds Shih.

ASUS’ N10 netbook integrates Intel’s Atom and the Nvidia GeForce 9300M graphics chip. On the higher-end of the spectrum, ASUS unveiled at the press conference a $1,649 S121 netbook running Windows 7 and with a 512 GB solid state drive.

Follows a video with some comments Shih made during the CES press conference:

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Posted by TechPulse 360

Intel Denies Illegal Bundling of Atom; But “Stand Alone” Version Costs 60% More!

December 29, 2008
Intel sells an Atom for the netbook/nettop market and a "standalone" version, at a price

Intel sells its Atom processor for the netbook/nettop market that is certified to work with its integrated graphics chip and a "stand alone" or mobile version, but at a steeper price

Intel told us over the weekend that its Atom processors are available as stand alone chips, sans its poor graphics processor. The price list can be found here.

The Santa Clara, Calif. company argues that PC manufacturers are free to take its low cost Atom processor, pair it with Nvidia’s high-end graphics chip for example and build a powerful netbook that could rival the performance of an Intel Centrino 2 notebook.

Netbooks with Intel graphics chips are cheaper to make than “sans” graphics

But one of the caveat for that hybrid Intel-Nvidia solution dubbed “Ion” is its price; as this could end up being a costly proposition for OEMs.

Intel’s price list features 2 versions of the Atom processor: one that is “certified” with Intel’s own graphics chipset like the N270 part ($44) and the other that is not, like the Z530 ($70). And as you can see, with similar performance and characteristics, the “stand alone” version costs over 60% more.

Knowing that the processor is the second – and sometimes the first! – most expensive part in a netbook, after the LCD screen, OEMs might restrain from adopting Nvidia’s Ion platform; which could add $100 or more on a $350-500 netbook.

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Posted by TechPulse 360

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