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Nvidia CEO Shares Company's CPU Strategy

By - Source: Tom's Hardware US

Not x86, it's all about ARM now.

Nvidia's been rumored to be looking to get into the CPU business, perhaps in an effort to compete better against AMD with ATI in-house, as well as Intel. But on that front, Nvidia would require an x86 license; and the graphics maker isn't on the best terms with Intel at the moment.

Despite that, Nvidia still has a CPU strategy – one that involves a completely different market.

"Our CPU strategy is ARM," Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang told Cnet in an interview. "ARM is the fastest growing processor architecture in the world today. ARM supports (Google's) Android best. And Android is the fastest growing OS in the world today."

The end result is Tegra, an ARM CPU paired to Nvidia's GPU technology. The first generation Tegra is already on the market in every Microsoft Zune HD, but the second generation, dual-core Tegra 2 has yet to hit any commercial product.

As for Nvidia's chipset business, the license problems with Intel have effectively killed that division at the company.

"They (Intel) have disrupted our chipset business," Huang said. "The damage has been done. We've been out of the chipset business for well over a year, so if this got resolved we're not expecting to ramp back up the thousand engineers that we had working on chipsets."

There are 69 Comments.
Top Comments
  • 30
    pbrigido , August 16, 2010 9:04 PM
    Get them in the CPU market! More competition!!!
  • 17
    meat81 , August 16, 2010 9:12 PM
    i know i am beating a dead horse but i would have loved to see Nvidia's X58 chipset offering.... F-ing Intel
  • 20
    denial_ , August 16, 2010 9:13 PM
    Dam Intel with their hand on x86 technologie killing CPU competition!!
  • 20
    allenpan , August 16, 2010 9:28 PM
    it will be wise to merge with VIA or DM&P Electronics's "Vortex86", DNP is a much cheaper company who also own x86 lisences
  • 22
    jplarson , August 16, 2010 9:29 PM
    It's a real shame that Intel is able to hold onto the x86 licensing... that effectively creates a monopoly. Granted they own the intellectual property of it, but it costs the market competition.
  • 14
    LORD_ORION , August 16, 2010 9:31 PM
    x86 licenses are non-transferable. Intel isn't stupid.
  • 14
    tokenz , August 16, 2010 9:45 PM
    LORD_ORIONx86 licenses are non-transferable. Intel isn't stupid.


    Actually they just settled in court, and now they are transferable.
  • 12
    7amood , August 16, 2010 10:27 PM
    " . . . we're not expecting to ramp back up the thousand engineers that we had working on chipsets."

    THOUSAND ENGINEERS!!!??? ok... is this guy bluffing?
Other Comments
  • 30
    pbrigido , August 16, 2010 9:04 PM
    Get them in the CPU market! More competition!!!
  • 22
    jplarson , August 16, 2010 9:29 PM
    It's a real shame that Intel is able to hold onto the x86 licensing... that effectively creates a monopoly. Granted they own the intellectual property of it, but it costs the market competition.
  • 20
    allenpan , August 16, 2010 9:28 PM
    it will be wise to merge with VIA or DM&P Electronics's "Vortex86", DNP is a much cheaper company who also own x86 lisences
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