Nvidia
39120
226183237
2008-07-17T05:40:44Z
68.80.13.245
/* GeForce 6 series and later */
{{refimprove|date=July 2008}}
{{Infobox_Company
|company_name=Nvidia Corporation
|company_logo=[[Image:Nvidia logo.svg|200px|Nvidia logo]]
|company_type=[[Public company|Public]] ({{NASDAQ|NVDA}})
|company_slogan=The Way It's Meant to Be Played
|foundation=1993
|location=2701 San Tomas Expressway<br>[[Santa Clara, California]]<br>{{flagicon|USA}} [[USA]]
|key_people=[[Jen-Hsun Huang]], Co-founder, [[President]] and [[Chief executive officer|CEO]]<br>[[Chris Malachowsky]], Co-founder, Nvidia Fellow, Senior Vice President, Engineering and Operations<br>[[Jonah M. Alben]], Vice President, GPU Engineering<br>[[Debora Shoquist]], Senior Vice President, Operations<br>Dr Ranga Jayaraman, [[Chief Information Officer|CIO]]
|num_employees=over 4,985 ([[as of June 2008]])
|industry=[[Semiconductors]]- [[Specialized]]
|products=[[Graphics processing units]] <br> [[motherboard]]-[[chipsets]]
|revenue={{profit}}$4.1 Billion [[United States dollar|USD]] (2007)
|net_income={{profit}}$797.6 Million [[United States dollar|USD]] (2007)
|homepage=[http://www.nvidia.com/ www.nvidia.com]
}}
[[Image:Nvidiaheadquarters.jpg|thumb|right|275px|Nvidia headquarters in Santa Clara]]
'''NVIDIA Corporation''' ({{nasdaq|NVDA}}) ({{pronEng|ɪnˈvɪ.di.ə}}), an [[US|American]] [[multinational corporation]], specializes in the manufacture of [[graphics processing unit|graphics-processor]] technologies for [[workstation]]s, [[desktop computer]]s, and [[mobile device| handheld device]]s. The company, based in [[Santa Clara, California]], has become a major supplier of integrated circuits (ICs) used for personal-computer [[motherboard]] [[chipset]]s, [[graphics processing unit]]s (GPUs), and [[Video game console|game-consoles]]. Notable product lines include the [[GeForce]] series for gaming and the [[Quadro]] series for graphics processing on [[professional workstation]]s, as well as the [[Comparison of Nvidia chipsets|nForce]] series of integrated motherboard-chipsets.
== Company history ==
The company's name, NVIDIA, combines an initial ''n''—a letter often used for mathematical variables—and the root of ''video''—which comes from [[Latin]] ''videre'', "to see", thus implying "the best visual experience"{{Fact|date=September 2007}}. The company-name appears entirely in upper-case ("NVIDIA") in company technical documentation, although marketing materials and other collateral show less brand-consistency.
The name ''NVIDIA'' suggests "envy" ([[Spanish language|Spanish]] ''envidia'' or in Latin, [[Italian language|Italian]], or [[Romanian language|Romanian]] ''[[invidia]]''); and the [[GeForce 8|GeForce 8 series]] uses the slogan "Green with envy".
[[Jen-Hsun Huang]] (the [[as of 2008| present]] CEO), [[Curtis Priem]], and [[Chris Malachowsky]] co-founded the company in 1993 with venture-capital funding from [[Sequoia Capital]]. <ref>[http://www.forbes.com/global/2002/0415/032_print.html Forbes.com - Magazine Article<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>
In 2000 NVIDIA acquired the intellectual assets of its one-time rival [[3dfx]], one of the biggest graphics companies of the mid- to late-1990s.
On [[December 14]], [[2005]], NVIDIA acquired [[Acer Laboratories Incorporated|ULI Electronics]], which at the time supplied third-party [[Southbridge (computing)|Southbridge]] parts for [[chipset]]s to [[ATI Technologies|ATI]], Nvidia's competitor. In March 2006, Nvidia acquired [[Hybrid Graphics]]<ref>
[[The Register]] Hardware news: [http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2006/03/22/nvidia_buys_hybrid/ ''Nvidia acquires Hybrid Graphics'']
</ref>
and on [[January 5]], [[2007]], it announced that it had completed the acquisition of [[PortalPlayer]], Inc.<ref>Press Release: [http://www.nvidia.com/object/portalplayer_acquisition.html''Nvidia acquires PortalPlayer''], dated January 5, 2007.</ref>
In December 2006 Nvidia, along with its main rival in the graphics industry AMD (which acquired ATI), received subpoenas from the [[United States Department of Justice|Justice Department]] regarding possible [[United States antitrust law|antitrust]] violations in the graphics-card industry.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9584_22-6140041.html |title=Justice Dept. subpoenas AMD, Nvidia| publisher=New York Times|date=2006-12-01}}</ref>
''[[Forbes]]'' magazine named Nvidia its ''Company of the Year'' for 2007, citing the accomplishments it made during the said period as well as during the previous 5 years.<ref>{{cite web|url = http://www.forbes.com/home/technology/forbes/2008/0107/092.html|publisher=Forbes.com|title=Shoot to Kill|author=Brian Caulfield|accessdate=2007-12-26|date=2008-01-07}}
</ref>
In February 2008 NVIDIA acquired [[Ageia]] Technologies for an undisclosed sum. "The purchase reflects both companies['] shared goal of creating the most amazing and captivating game experiences", said Jen-Hsun Huang, president and CEO of Nvidia. "By combining the teams that created the world's most pervasive GPU and physics engine brands, we can now bring GeForce-accelerated PhysX to hundreds of millions of gamers around the world."{{Fact|date=February 2008}} The press-release{{Fact|date=April 2008}} makes no mention of the acquisition-cost nor of specific products.
== Market history ==
=== Before DirectX ===
[[Image:Stbriva128.jpg|thumb|250px|Nvidia Riva 128 video card]]
Nvidia released its first graphics card, the [[NV1]], in 1995. Its design used [[quadratic surface]]s, with an integrated playback-only sound-card and ports for [[Sega Saturn]] [[gamepad]]s. Because the Saturn also used forward-rendered quadratics, programmers ported several Saturn games to play on a PC with NV1, such as ''[[Panzer Dragoon]]'' and ''[[Virtua Fighter|Virtua Fighter Remix]]''. However, the NV1 struggled in a market-place full of several competing proprietary standards.
Market interest in the product ended when Microsoft announced the [[DirectX]] specifications, based upon polygons. Subsequently NV1 development continued internally as the [[NV2]] project, funded by several millions of dollars of investment from [[Sega]]. Sega hoped that an integrated sound-and-graphics chip would cut the manufacturing cost of their next console. However, Sega eventually realized the flaws in implementing quadratic surfaces, and the NV2 was never fully developed.{{Fact|date=December 2007}}
=== A fresh start ===
Nvidia's CEO Jen-Hsun Huang realized at this point that after two failed products, something had to change for the company to survive. He hired [[David Kirk (scientist)|David Kirk, Ph.D.]] as Chief Scientist from software-developer [[Crystal Dynamics]], a company renowned for the visual quality of its titles. David Kirk turned Nvidia around by combining the company's experience in [[3D computer graphics|3D]] hardware with an intimate understanding of practical implementations of [[rendering]].
As part of the corporate transformation, NVIDIA abandoned proprietary interfaces, sought to fully support DirectX, and dropped multimedia-functionality in order to reduce manufacturing-costs. Nvidia also adopted the goal of an internal 6-month product-cycle. The future failure of any one product would not threaten the survival of the company, since a next-generation replacement part would always come available.
However, since the Sega NV2 contract remained secret, and since NVIDIA had [[Layoff|laid off]] employees, it appeared to many industry-observers that Nvidia had ceased active research-and-development. So when Nvidia first announced the [[RIVA 128]] in 1997, the specifications were hard to believe: performance superior to market leader [[3dfx]] Voodoo Graphics, and a full hardware triangle setup engine. The RIVA 128 shipped in volume, and the combination of its low cost and high performance made it a popular choice for [[Original equipment manufacturer|OEMs]].
=== Ascendency: RIVA TNT ===
Having finally developed and shipped in volume the market-leading integrated graphics chipset, NVIDIA set itself the goal of doubling the number of [[pixel pipeline]]s in its chip, in order to realize a substantial performance-gain. The TwiN [[Texel (graphics)|Texel]] ([[RIVA TNT]]) engine which NVIDIA subsequently developed could either apply two textures to a single pixel, or process two pixels per [[Clock signal| clock-cycle]]. The former case allowed for improved visual quality, the latter for doubling the maximum [[Fillrate|fill-rate]].
New features included a 24-bit [[Z-buffer]] with 8-bit [[Stencil buffer|stencil support]], [[anisotropic filtering]], and per-pixel [[MIP mapping]]. In certain respects (such as transistor-count) the TNT had begun to rival [[Intel Corporation| Intel]]'s Pentium processors for complexity. However, while the TNT offered an astonishing range of quality integrated features, it failed to displace the market leader, [[3dfx]]'s [[Voodoo2| Voodoo 2]], because the actual clock-speed ended up at only 90 MHz, about 35% less than expected.
NVIDIA responded with a refresh part: a die-shrink for the TNT architecture from 350 nm to 250 nm. A stock TNT2 now ran at 125 MHz, an Ultra at 150 MHz. Though the [[Voodoo 3]] beat NVIDIA to the market, 3dfx's offering proved disappointing: it was not much faster and lacked features that were becoming standard, such as [[32-bit]] color and textures of resolution greater than 256 x 256 pixels.
The [[RIVA TNT2]] marked a major turning-point for NVIDIA. They had finally delivered a product competitive with the fastest on the market, with a superior feature-set, strong 2D functionality, all integrated onto a single die with strong yields, that ramped to impressive clock-speeds. NVIDIA's six month cycle refresh took the competition by surprise, giving it the initiative in rolling out new products.
=== Market leadership: GeForce ===
The autumn of 1999 saw the release of the [[GeForce 256]] (NV10), most notably bringing on-board transformation and lighting. It ran at 120 MHz; it implemented advanced video-acceleration, motion-compensation and hardware sub-picture alpha-blending; and had four pixel pipelines. The GeForce outperformed existing products — such as the ATI Rage 128, 3dfx Voodoo 3, Matrox G400 MAX, and RIVA TNT2 — by a wide margin.
Due to the success of its products, Nvidia won the contract to develop the [[GeForce 3|graphics hardware]] for Microsoft’s [[Xbox]] game-console, which earned Nvidia a large $200 million advance. However, the project drew the time of many of Nvidia's best engineers. In the short term, this was of no importance, and the [[GeForce2|GeForce 2 GTS]] shipped in the summer of 2000.
The GTS benefited from the fact that Nvidia had by this time acquired extensive manufacturing experience with their highly integrated cores, and as a result they succeeded in optimizing the core for clock-speeds. The volume of chips produced by Nvidia also enabled it to bin-split parts, picking out the highest-quality cores for its premium range. As a result, the GTS shipped at 200 MHz. The pixel fill rate of the GeForce256 nearly doubled, and [[Texel (graphics)| texel]]-fill rate nearly quadrupled because multi-texturing was added to each pixel pipeline. New features included [[S3TC]] compression, [[FSAA]], and improved [[MPEG-2]] motion compensation.
Shortly afterwards NVIDIA launched the GeForce 2 MX, intended for the budget and OEM market. It had two pixel-pipelines fewer, and ran at 165 MHz and later at 250 MHz. Offering strong performance at a mid-range price, the [[GeForce2|GeForce 2MX]] became one of the most successful graphics chipsets. Nvidia also shipped a mobile derivative called the GeForce2 Go at the end of 2000.
NVIDIA's success proved too much for [[3dfx]] to recover its past market-share. The long-delayed [[Voodoo 5]], the successor to the Voodoo 3, did not compare favorably with the GeForce 2 in either price or performance, and failed to generate the sales needed to keep the company afloat. With 3dfx on the verge of bankruptcy near the end of 2000, NVIDIA purchased most of 3dfx's intellectual property, (in dispute at the time)<ref>
[http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=NVIDIA+3dfx+lawsuit&meta= Google search], retrieved [[2008-05-11]]
</ref>, but also acquired [[anti-aliasing]] expertise, and about 100 engineers (but not the company itself, which filed for bankruptcy in 2002).
NVIDIA developed the [[GeForce 3]] which pioneered DirectX 8 vertex and pixel-[[shader]]s, and then refined it with the [[GeForce 4]] Ti line. The GeForce 2 was succeeded by the [[GeForce 4]] MX. Nvidia announced the GeForce 4 Ti, MX, and Go in January 2002, one of the largest releases in NVIDIA history. Cleverly, the chips in the Ti and Go series differed only in chip and memory clock-speeds. (The MX series lacked the pixel and vertex shader functionalities; it derived from GeForce 2 level hardware.)
[[Image:Geforcemx4000.jpg|thumb|250px|GfMX4000 64MB card. Produced 2002-2003]]
=== Shortcomings of the FX series ===
At this point NVIDIA’s market position looked unassailable, and industry observers began to refer to Nvidia as the [[Intel Corporation| Intel]] of the graphics-industry. However, its major remaining rival [[ATI Technologies]] did stay competitive due to its [[Radeon R200|Radeon]] which performed mostly on a par with the GeForce 2 GTS. Though ATI's answer to the GeForce 3, the [[Radeon R300|Radeon 8500]], came later to market and initially suffered from driver issues, the 8500 proved a superior competitor due to its lower price and greater potential. NVIDIA countered ATI's offering with the [[GeForce 4]] Ti line, though the Ti 4200's delayed rollout enabled the 8500 to carve out a niche. ATI opted to work on its next-generation [[Radeon R300|Radeon 9700]] rather than on a direct competitor to the GeForce 4 Ti.
During the development of the next-generation [[GeForce FX]] chips, many of Nvidia’s best engineers focused on the [[Xbox]] contract, developing a motherboard solution, including the API used as part of the [[SoundStorm]] platform. NVIDIA also had a contractual obligation to develop newer and more hack-resistant [[GeForce 3|NV2A]] chips, and this requirement further shortchanged the FX project. The Xbox contract did not allow for falling manufacturing costs as processor technology improved, and Microsoft sought to re-negotiate the terms of the contract, withholding the DirectX 9 specifications as leverage. As a result, NVIDIA and Microsoft relations, which had previously been very good, deteriorated. Both parties later settled the dispute through arbitration and the terms were not released to the public. However, the dispute was what prompted Nvidia to pass over developing a graphics solution for the succeeding [[Xbox 360]], with ATI taking on that contract, while Nvidia decided to work on the Sony [[PlayStation 3]] instead.
Due to the Xbox dispute, no consultation with NVIDIA took place during the drawing up of the DirectX 9 specification, while ATI designed the [[Radeon 9700]] to fit the DirectX specifications. This development limited rendering color support to 24 bits floating point{{Fact|date=May 2008}}, and the whole development emphasized shader performance, the main expected focus of DirectX 9. Developers built the shader-compiler using the Radeon 9700 as the base card.{{huh?}}
In contrast, NVIDIA’s cards offered 16- and 32-bit floating point modes, offering either lower visual quality (as compared to the competition), or slow performance. The 32-bit support made them much more expensive to manufacture, requiring a higher transistor count. Shader performance often remained at half or less of the speed provided by ATI's competing products. Having made its reputation by designing easy-to-manufacture DirectX-compatible parts, Nvidia had misjudged Microsoft’s next standard and paid a heavy price: as more and more games started to rely on DirectX 9 features, the poor shader performance of the GeForce FX series became ever more obvious. With the exception of the FX 5700 series (a late revision), the FX series lacked performance compared to equivalent ATI cards.
Nvidia started to become ever more desperate to hide the shortcomings of the GeForce FX range. It released a notable "FX only" demo called [[Dawn (demo)|Dawn]], but a hacked wrapper enabled it to run on a 9700, where it ran faster despite a perceived translation overhead. NVIDIA also began to include "optimizations" in their drivers to increase performance. While some users contended that increased real world gaming performance were valid, hardware review sites started to run articles showing how Nvidia’s driver auto-detected benchmarks, and produced artificially inflated scores that did not relate to real world performance. Often it was tips from ATI’s driver development team that lay behind these articles. As Nvidia’s drivers became ever more full of hacks and "optimizations," the legendary stability and compatibility also began to suffer. While Nvidia did partially close the gap with new instruction reordering capabilities introduced in later drivers, shader performance remained weak and over-sensitive to hardware-specific code compilation. NVIDIA worked with Microsoft to release an updated DirectX compiler, that generated GeForce FX specific optimized code.
Furthermore, GeForce FX devices also ran hot, because they drew as much as double the amount of power as equivalent parts from ATI. The GeForce FX 5800 Ultra became notorious for its fan noise, and acquired the nicknames "dustbuster" and "leafblower" - Nvidia jokingly acknowledged these accusations with a video, where the marketing team compares the cards to a [[Harley-Davidson]].<ref>
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFZ39nQ_k90 YouTube - Nvidia Hair Dryer<!-- Bot generated title -->]
</ref>
Although the quieter 5900 replaced the 5800 without fanfare, the FX chips still needed large and expensive fans, placing Nvidia's partners at a manufacturing cost disadvantage compared to ATI. As a result of Microsoft's actions, and the resultant FX series' weaknesses, NVIDIA quite unexpectedly lost its market leadership position to ATI.
=== GeForce 6 series and later ===
[[Image:Nvidia old logo.svg|thumb|right|200px|The old Nvidia logo, in use until the release of the [[GeForce 8]] series]]
With the [[GeForce 6 series]], Nvidia had clearly moved beyond the DX9 performance problems that plagued the previous generation. The GeForce 6 series not only performed competitively where Direct 3D shaders were concerned, but also supported DirectX Shader Model 3.0, while ATI's competing X800 series chips only supported the previous 2.0 specification. This proved an insignificant advantage, mainly because games of that period did not employ extensions for Shader Model 3.0. However, it demonstrated Nvidia's desire to design and follow through with the newest features and deliver them in a specific timeframe. What became more apparent during this time was that the products of the two firms, ATI and Nvidia, offered equivalent performance. The two firms traded blows in specific titles and specific criteria — resolution, image quality, anisotropic filtering/anti-aliasing — but differences were becoming more abstract, and the reigning concern became price-to-performance. The mid-range offerings of the two firms demonstrated the consumers' appetite for affordable, high-performance graphics cards, and it is now this price segment in which much of the firms' profitability is determined. The GeForce 6 series were released in a very interesting period: the game ''Doom 3'' was just released where ATI's Radeon 9700 struggled at the OpenGL performance. In 2004, the GeForce 6800 performed excellently, while the GeForce 6600GT remained as important to Nvidia as the GeForce2 MX a few years previously. The GeForce 6600GT enabled users of the card to play ''Doom 3'' at very high resolutions and graphical settings, which was thought to be highly unlikely considering its selling price. The GeForce 6 series also introduced [[Scalable Link Interface|SLI]] (which is similar to what 3dfx was using on the Voodoo 2). A combination of SLI and the performance gain as a result returned Nvidia to market leadership.
[[Image:Sli ready.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Badge displayed on products certified by Nvidia to utilize [[SLI]] technology]]
The [[GeForce 7 series]] represented a heavily beefed-up extension of the reliable 6-series. The industry's introduction of the [[PCI Express]] bus standard allowed Nvidia to release [[Scalable Link Interface|SLI]] (Scalable Link Interface), a solution that employs two similar cards to share the workload in rendering. While these solutions do not equate to double the performance, and require more electricity (two cards ''vis-à-vis'' one), they can make a huge difference as higher resolutions and settings are enabled and, more importantly, offer more upgrade flexibility. ATI responded with the X1000 series, and their own dual-rendering solution called "Crossfire". Sony chose Nvidia to develop the "RSX" chip used in the PlayStation 3 — a modified version of the 7800 GPU.
Nvidia released the 8-series chip towards the end of 2006, making the 8-series the first to support Microsoft's next-generation [[DirectX 10]] specification. The 8-series GPUs also featured the revolutionary [[Unified Shader Architecture]], and Nvidia leveraged this to provide an additional functionality for its graphics cards: better support for General Purpose Computing on GPU ([[GPGPU]]). A new product-line of "compute-only" devices called [[Nvidia Tesla]] emerged from the G80 architecture, and subsequently Nvidia also became the market leader of this new field by introducing the world's first [[C programming language]] [[API]] for GPGPU: [[CUDA]].
Nvidia released two models of the high-end 8-series (8800) chip: the 8800GTS (640MB) and the 8800GTX (768MB). Later, Nvidia released the 8800 Ultra (essentially an 8800GTX with a different cooler and higher clocks). All three of these cards derive from the 90nm G80 core (with 681 million transistors). The GTS model had 96 stream processors and 20 ROPS and the GTX/Ultra had 128 stream processors and 24 ROPS. In early 2007 Nvidia released the 8800GTS 320mb. This card resembles an 8800GTS 640, but with 32MB memory chips instead of 64MB (the cards contained 10 memory chips).
In October 2007 Nvidia released the 8800GT. The 8800GT used the new 65nm G92 GPU and had 112 stream processors. It contained 512Mb of VRAM and operated on a 256bit bus. It had several fixes and new features that the previous 8800s lacked. Later in December 2007 Nvidia released the 8800GTS G92. It represented a larger 8800GT with higher clocks and all of the 128 stream processors of the G92 unlocked. Both the 8800GTS G92 and 8800GT have full PCI Express 2.0 support.
In February 2008 Nvidia released the 9600-series chip, which supports Microsoft's DirectX 10 specification, in response to ATI's release of the Radeon HD3800 series. After March Nvidia released the GeForce 9800 GX2, which, roughly put, packs a dual GeForce 8800 GTS G92 into a single card.
In June 2008 Nvidia released their new flagship GPUs named the GTX 280 and GTX 260. The cards used the same basic Unified Architecture deployed in the previous 8 and 9 series cards, but with a tune-up in power. Both of the cards take as their basis the gt200 GPU. This GPU contains 1.4 billion transistors on a 65nm [[Semiconductor device fabrication| fabrication]]. According to [[TSMC]], it has the largest die area of any chip ever fabricated. The GTX 280 has 240 shaders (stream processors) and the GTX 260 has 192 shaders. The GTX 280 has 1GB of GDDR3 VRAM and uses a 512 bit bus. The GTX 260 has 896MB of GDDR3 VRAM on a 448 bit bus. The GTX 280 allegedly provides approximately 933 GFLOPS of floating point power.{{Fact|date=July 2008}} Rumor suggests that Nvidia will release a die shrink of the gt200 very [[as of 2008| soon]] due to the high production costs and high [[Thermal Design Power| TDP]] of the GPU.{{Fact|date=July 2008}}
In June 2008 a large shipment of G84, G86 mobile video adapters exhibited a major manufacturing flaw, and malfunctioning after regular thermal cycling.{{Fact|date=July 2008}} Nvidia stock dropped significantly in response to the news.{{Fact|date=July 2008}}
=== Market-share ===
According to a survey<ref>
{{cite web | url= http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/video/display/20071029062106.html | title = Nvidia Continues to Gain Graphics Market Share, AMD Keeps on Downfall – JPR. | publisher = X-bit Labs | date = 2007-10-29 | accessmonthday = December 2 | accessyear = 2007}}
</ref>
conducted by Jon Peddie Research, a market-watch firm, in the third quarter of 2007, Nvidia occupied the top slot in the desktop graphic-devices market with a market share of 37.8%. However, in the mobile space, it remained third with 22.8% of the market. Overall Nvidia has maintained its position as the second-largest supplier of PC graphic shipments, which includes both integrated and discrete GPUs, with 33.9% market share, their highest in many years, which puts them just behind Intel (38%).
According to the [[Steam (content delivery)|Steam]] hardware survey<ref>http://www.steampowered.com/status/survey.html</ref> conducted by the game-developer [[Valve Corporation| Valve]], Nvidia had 62.06% of PC videocard market share (as of [[March 11]], 2008). ATI had 30.81% of the PC videocard market share. But this could relate to Valve releasing trial versions of [[The Orange Box]] to Nvidia graphics-card users, which link to the test.
== Products ==
[[Image:6600GT GPU.jpg|thumb|250px|Graphic processor on Nvidia GeForce 6600GT]]
Nvidia's product-portfolio includes graphics-processors, wireless-communications processors, PC platform (motherboard core-logic) [[chipset]]s, and digital-media-player software. The Mac/PC user community arguably knows Nvidia best for its "GeForce" product-line, which not only offers a complete line of "discrete" graphics chips found in AIB (add-in-board) video cards, but also provides a core-technology in both the [[Microsoft]] [[Xbox]] game-console and [[Comparison of Nvidia chipsets|nForce]] motherboards.
In many respects, Nvidia resembles its competitor [[ATI]], because both companies began with a focus in the PC market, but later expanded their businesses into chips for non-PC applications. Nvidia does not sell graphics boards into the retail market, instead focusing on the development of [[Graphics processing unit|GPU]] chips. The manufacturing of Nvidia chips, as a [[fabless semiconductor company]] occurs in the Taiwanese [[TSMC]]. As part of their operations, both ATI and Nvidia do create "reference designs" (board schematics) and provide manufacturing samples to their board partners. Manufacturers of Nvidia cards include [[BFG Technologies|BFG]], [[EVGA (Company)|EVGA]], [[Foxconn]], [[PNY]], and [[XFX]]. [[ASUS]], [[Gigabyte Technology]], and [[MSI]] exemplify manufacturers of both ATI and Nvidia cards.
December 2004 saw the announcement that Nvidia would assist [[Sony]] with the design of the graphics processor ([[RSX 'Reality Synthesizer'|RSX]]) in the Sony [[PlayStation 3]] game-console. As of March 2006, it is known that Nvidia will deliver RSX to Sony as an IP-core, and that Sony alone would be responsible for manufacturing the RSX. Under the agreement, Nvidia will provide ongoing support to port the RSX to Sony's fabs of choice (Sony and Toshiba), as well as die-shrinks to 65 nm. This is a departure from Nvidia's business arrangement with Microsoft, in which Nvidia managed production and delivery of the Xbox GPU through Nvidia's usual third-party foundry contracts. (Meanwhile, Microsoft has chosen to license a design by ATI and make their own manufacturing arrangements for [[Xbox 360]]'s graphics hardware, as has [[Nintendo]] for their [[Wii]] console to succeed the ATI-based [[GameCube]].)
On [[February 4]], [[2008]], NVIDIA announced plans to acquire physics software producer AGEIA, whose PhysX physics engine program forms part of hundreds of games shipping or in development for [[PlayStation 3]], [[Xbox 360]], [[Wii]], and gaming PCs.<ref>
{{cite web |url=http://www.dailytech.com/Update+NVIDIA+to+Acquire+AGEIA/article10573.htm |title=NVIDIA to Acquire AGEIA |publisher=DailyTech.com |date=[[2008-02-04]]}}
</ref>
This transaction completed on [[February 13]], [[2008]]<ref>
[http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/080213/aqw093.html?.v=37 NVIDIA Completes Acquisition of AGEIA Technologies: Financial News - Yahoo! Finance<!-- Bot generated title -->]
</ref>
and efforts to integrate [[PhysX]] into the GeForce 8800's [[CUDA]] system began. <ref>
[http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=NjMzNA [Phoronix] PhysX For CUDA, Linux Support A Given?<!-- Bot generated title -->]
</ref> <ref>
[http://techreport.com/discussions.x/14147 GeForce 8 graphics processors to gain PhysX support - The Tech Report<!-- Bot generated title -->]
</ref>
On [[June 2]] [[2008]] Nvidia officially announced its new [[Tegra]] product-line.<ref> http://www.techtree.com/India/News/Nvidia_Rolls_out_Tegra_Processors/551-89833-581.html Nvidia Rolls out "Tegra" Processors
</ref>
These "computers on a chip" integrate CPU (ARM), GPU, northbridge, southbridge and primary memory functionality onto a single chip. Commentators{{who?}} opine that Nvidia will target this product at the smart-phone and mobile Internet device sector.
=== Graphics chipsets ===
* [[NV1]] – Nvidia's first product, based on quadratic surfaces
* [[RIVA 128|RIVA 128 and RIVA 128ZX]] – [[DirectX]] 5 support, [[OpenGL]] 1 support, Nvidia's first DirectX-compliant hardware
* [[RIVA TNT]], [[RIVA TNT2]] – DirectX 6 support, OpenGL 1 support; the series that made Nvidia a market-leader
* [[GeForce|Nvidia GeForce]] - Desktop-graphics acceleration-solutions
* [[Nvidia Quadro]] – High-quality workstation solutions
* [[Nvidia Tesla]] - Dedicated [[GPGPU]] processing for [[High Performance Computing]] systems
* [[GoForce|Nvidia GoForce]] – Media processors for PDAs, [[Smartphones]], and mobile phones featuring nPower technology
* GPU for game consoles
** [[Xbox]] GeForce 3 - class GPU (on an [[Intel]] [[Pentium III]]/[[Celeron]] platform)
** [[PlayStation 3]] - [[RSX 'Reality Synthesizer']]
=== Personal-computer platforms and chipsets ===
* [[Comparison of Nvidia chipsets|Nvidia nForce]]
** [[nForce|nForce IGP]] ([[AMD]] [[Athlon]]/[[Duron]] K7 line)
** [[nForce2]] (AMD Athlon/Duron K7 line, SPP (system platform processor) or IGP (Integrated Graphics Platform) and [[Media Communications Processor|MCP]] (Media and Communications Processor), also features [[SoundStorm]])
** [[nForce3]] (AMD [[Athlon 64]]/Athlon 64 FX/[[Opteron]], MCP only)
** [[nForce4]] (AMD [[Athlon 64]]/Athlon 64 X2/Athlon 64 FX/[[Opteron]], MCP only;[[Intel]] [[Pentium 4]]/[[Pentium D]], SSP + MCP)
** [[nForce 500]] (AMD Athlon 64 FX/Athlon 64 X2/Athlon 64/[[Sempron]] or [[Intel]] [[Core 2]] Extreme/Core 2 Duo/[[Pentium 4]]/[[Celeron D]]/[[Pentium D]])
** [[nForce 600]] ([[AMD Quad FX]] or [[Intel]] [[Core 2]] Quad/Core 2 Extreme/Core 2 Duo/[[Pentium 4]]/[[Celeron D]]/[[Pentium D]])
** [[nForce 700]] ([[Intel]] [[Core 2]] and [[AMD]] [[Phenom (processor)|Phenom]])
=== Documentation and drivers ===
{{main|Graphics hardware and FOSS}}
Nvidia does not publish the documentation for its hardware, meaning that programmers cannot write appropriate and effective [[open source| open-source]] drivers for Nvidia's products. Instead, Nvidia provides its own [[binary file|binary]] GeForce graphics drivers for [[X.Org]] and a thin open-source library that interfaces with the [[Linux kernel|Linux]], [[FreeBSD]] or [[Solaris Operating System|Solaris]] kernels and the [[proprietary software|proprietary]] graphics software. NVIDIA also supports an obfuscated open-source driver that only supports two-dimensional hardware acceleration and ships with the [[X.Org]] distribution. Nvidia's Linux support has promoted mutual adoption in the entertainment, scientific visualization, defense and simulation/training [[industry| industries]], traditionally dominated by [[Silicon Graphics|SGI]], [[Evans & Sutherland]] and other relatively costly vendors.
Because of the proprietary nature of Nvidia's drivers, they continue to generate controversy within the [[free software]] [[community| communities]]. Many Linux and BSD users insist on using only open-source drivers, and regard Nvidia's insistence on providing nothing more than a binary-only driver as wholly inadequate, when competing manufacturers like [[Intel]] offer excellent support and documentation for [[open source| open-source]] developers, or others like [[ATI]] at least release partial documentation.<ref>
[http://lwn.net/Articles/195351/ ''Linux Weekly News'' [[14 August]] 2006: ''X.org, distributors, and proprietary modules'']
</ref> Because of the closed nature of the drivers, NVIDIA video cards do not deliver adequate features on several platforms and architectures, such as FreeBSD on the [[AMD64|x86-64]] architecture and the other [[BSD]] operating systems on any architecture. Support for three-dimensional graphics acceleration in Linux on the [[PowerPC]] does not exist; nor does support for Linux on the hypervisor-restricted [[PS3|PlayStation 3]] console. While some users accept the Nvidia-supported drivers, many users of open-source software would prefer a better OOTB experience<ref>
[http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-software-2/poll-do-you-install-foss-over-proprietary-585895/ ''LinuxQuestions.org'' [[20 September]] 2007: '''']
</ref>
if given the choice.
Nvidia drivers cause known issues on computers running [[Windows Vista]]. The forums on the Nvidia homepage have various topics where users discuss the failure and recovery error of the driver without any solution.
[[X.Org Foundation]] and [[Freedesktop.org]] have started the [[Nouveau (graphics)|Nouveau]] project, which aims to develop [[free software]] [[Device driver|drivers]] for Nvidia graphics cards by [[reverse engineering| reverse-engineering]] Nvidia's current [[Proprietary software|proprietary]] drivers for [[Linux]].
=== Video-card manufacturers ===
{{Prose|date=June 2008}}
Nvidia does not manufacture video-cards, only the [[graphics processing unit| GPU]] chips. It does specify the speed and configuration for the chips, the video memory, and (most of the time) the design and layout, which it expects third-parties to follow. Each [[original equipment manufacturer|OEM]] assembles the cards under one of the following brand names:
*[[AOpen]]
*[[ASUS]]
*[[BFG Technologies|BFG]] (also under its [[3D Fuzion]] brand)
*[[Biostar]]
*[[Chaintech]]
*[[Club 3D]]
*[[Creative Labs]]
*[[EVGA (Company)|EVGA]]
*[[Foxconn]]
*[[Gainward]]
*[[GALAXY Technology]]
*[[Gigabyte Technology|Gigabyte]]
*[[Hewlett-Packard]]
*[[InnoVISION Multimedia|Inno3D]]
*[[Leadtek]]
*[[Manli]]
*[[Micro-Star International|Micro-Star International (MSI)]]
*[[OCZ]]
*[[Palit]]
*[[Point of View (computer hardware company)|POV]]
*[[PNY Technologies|PNY]]
*[[Jetway]]
*[[XFX]]
*[[Zotac]]
== See also ==
* [[ATI Technologies]]
* [[Comparison of ATI graphics processing units]]
* [[Comparison of Nvidia graphics processing units]]
* [[Matrox]]
* [[Nvidia Demos]]
* [[Video In Video Out|Video In Video Out (VIVO)]]
== References ==
{{reflist}}
== External links ==
* [http://www.nvidia.com/ Nvidia.com – Corporate website]
* [http://www.nzone.com/ nZone.com - Nvidia's gaming community site]
{{Nvidia}}
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