Graphics force Nvidia enters core-logic arena

Graphics force Nvidia enters core-logic arena
SAN MATEO, Calif. — Graphics powerhouse Nvidia Corp. moves into the core-logic market this week with the introduction of a trio of advanced chips that incorporate its high-end graphics cores along with other powerful components. The company claims that the parts are much faster than any existing integrated graphics core-logic designs.

Nvidia is a major player in discrete graphics, but this thrust puts Nvidia into direct competition with a whole new class of chip companies, including industry titan Intel Corp. and several Taiwanese chip set vendors.

Nvidia will introduce the nForce line, composed of three different devices aimed at different segments of the desktop PC segment, at the Computex trade show in Taiwan. The company is already the leading graphics chip company, and its GeForce line has dominated the market since its rollout two years ago with enough of a performance edge to steamroll its competitors. "We are going to do the same thing in the chip set market," promised Michael Lim, product manager for the nForce line.

Lim said that moving into this space was a natural extension of its work on Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox gaming console, which is expected to launch later this year in time for the holiday shopping season. Santa Clara, Calif.-based Nvidia won the contract to develop the graphics chip for the Xbox in 1999, and shortly afterward secured the deal to produce the accompanying media controller chip, which includes audio features, memory controllers and other I/O components.

The main processor inside the Xbox is an X86-compatible microprocessor, and Lim said the Xbox media controller is therefore very similar in both design and function to the standard north bridge components currently used on PC motherboards. "We are leveraging our expertise from the Xbox," he said.

While there is still a healthy market for discrete graphics chips, much of the PC market is turning to the integrated parts that include a graphics core within a north bridge chip because they are less expensive. Industry observers say this trend will continue, and that the integrated parts will eventually be the dominant type of graphics components.

The current generation, however, is more notable for its economy than for its graphics performance, and most vendors are candid about saying the chips' main selling point is their price.

Lim said the nForce line will change that perception. "Integrated core-logic parts today use graphics controllers that are about three generations old," he said. "We're going to use one that is currently shipping."

The nForce will work exclusively with processors from Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) and will use AMD's HyperTransport system bus with its 800-Mbytes/second data transfer speed. Nvidia said it currently has no plans to provide a Pentium-compatible chipset because it lacks a frontside bus license for the Pentium 4.

Nvidia said its memory architecture is based on what it dubbed a crossbar design, in which the memory controllers on the north bridge allow simultaneous and independent access to the system memory. Nvidia said this improves throughput and reduces latency between the CPU or any other devices in the system as they vie for access to the memory. "In terms of performance, we can deliver up to two times the bandwidth of any other architecture today," said Tony Tamasi, senior director of product management for Nvidia. "The entire architecture was built from the ground up for simultaneous access to every device in the system."

The nForce line will start with three members. The nForce 220, with the GeForce2 MX graphics core and 64-bit double-data-rate DRAM controller, aims at the mainstream user. The nForce 420, which targets the enthusiast and performance desktop segments, comes in two flavors. It uses a 128-bit DDR DRAM controller, and is available with either the GeForce 2 MX core or the GeForce3 graphics component. The chips will be produced on Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.'s 0.18-micron process and will begin shipping in volume this August.

Mike Clendenin contributed to this report.