By Dan Jones
Nvidia Corp and Acer Labs Inc have teamed up to develop a Intel-killer chipset for the low-end PC market. The companies have not announced any products yet but will be developing a range of chipsets that integrate Nvidia’s graphics technology into Acer’s northbridge chipset architecture.
Nvidia, which has just announced second-quarter revenues up 543% (see Earnings Report), sees the low-end PC market as an area ripe for expansion. The company is likely to integrate a version of its Riva TNT2 chip with Acer’s x86 chipset designs. International Data Corp graphics analyst, Josephine Mong, described the deal with ALI as a logical move for Nvidia, saying that the company has both the high-end and low-end graphics technology to enable a range of chipsets. Kenneth Marr, director of business development at Nvidia, expects that the company will able to maintain the pace of development that is common to the desktop graphics chip arena. The general opinion about the integrated space, Marr said, is that it would be possible to bring out new products every six months. Marr expected that stand-alone graphics chip technology would trickle down into the integrated chipset market at a rapid rate.
All of this could be bad news for Intel, which has just withdrawn from the stand-alone graphics chip market with its tail between its legs. Smaller and more nimble companies like Nvidia and ATI Technologies Inc beat the company out of the sector. However, its 810 Whitney chipset, which incorporates its 752 graphic core, is its fastest ramping chipset ever, according to the company. Nancy Hartsoch, VP of sales and marketing at ALI, say that the first Nvidia/ALI chipset will be announced with a quarter. Intel said that it had decided not to ramp up the stand-alone 752 chip because it wanted to concentrate on the integrated market, however, it could soon be facing competition in this sector from some of the same companies that drove it out of stand-alone.
The other major rival working on integrated graphics chipsets is VIA Technologies Inc. The company has stamped its mark on the low-end market recently by snapping up Cyrix and Centaur. Hartsoch admitted that Acer had been watching VIA’s aggressive strategy with interest. One rumor that has been doing the rounds is that Acer may make a copycat move and buy x86 contender Rise Technologies Inc. However, Hartsoch refused to comment on this.
