北京时间2008年8月2日,国外媒体Digitimes英文站在显著位置刊登NVIDIA将退出芯片组市场的新闻。消息一经发表就得到了业界得广泛关注,国内多家媒体也对这则消息进行了转载及评论。但这一消息并没有得到NVIDIA的认同。

据Digitimes英文站消息原文,该站原因消息人士得话,说Nvidia决定退出芯片组市场,并且可能会将其芯片组部门的人员调动到GPU项目中。另外,一些台湾主板制造商已经 取消了基于nForce 7系列芯片组的高端主板项目。
主板厂商对此的态度是沉默。虽然NVIDIA宣称已经拿到了Intel QPI总线授权,但在下一代Nehalem平台上并不打算开发新款芯片组,而是借助nForce 200桥接芯片让Intel X58芯片组获得SLI支持。额外芯片的加入将使得主板厂商不得不重新进行布线设计,大大增加了成本,而且nForce 200芯片本身发热量巨大,也必须辅以散热手段,这一切都让主板厂商无法接受。相反,竞争对手AMD得多路CrossFireX正得到全面得应用和推广,如果NVIDIA不尽快设法公开授权,让Intel和/或AMD平台也支持SLI,就必然会在高端主板市场上束手束脚。据悉,DFI、富士康、技嘉等厂商都不打算推出nForce 790i SLI主板。
另外最近有消息称苹果会在今后的笔记本中采用NVIDIA芯片组,现在看来可能性也不大了,毕竟苹果和Intel的关系已经很密切,如果现在转向前途并不明朗的NVIDIA,并不是一个明智得选择,这样不符合苹果一贯精明的作风。
但是以上报道遭到了NVIDIA官方的否认。据外媒报道,针对此前有媒体报道称Nvidia拟退出芯片组市场一事,Nvidia发言人布莱恩·德尔·里佐(Bryan Del Rizzo)向报道此事的媒体致函,称这些报道“不实”且“无根据”,并要求其撤回有关此事的报道。
但是俗话说无风不起浪,NVIDIA近段时间在主板市场上得表现不佳是众所周之的事情,传闻NVIDIA放弃芯片组业务也是有一定的事实作为背景。主板芯片组业务是NVIDIA除了GPU以外的最主要产品线,放弃这一市场无疑是对NVIDIA的一个巨大打击,NVIDIA在nForce 2时代的强盛让大家印象深刻,难道这样一个曾经无比辉煌的巨头真会落到如此境地?让我们关注后续得报道。
Digitimes英文站消息原文如下:
Nvidia to quit chipset business
Ricky Morris, DIGITIMES, Taipei [Friday 1 August 2008]
Nvidia has decided to throw in the towel and quit the chipset business, sources close to the situation at one of Taiwan's top motherboard makers have revealed. As the story is told, Nvidia called a meeting earlier this week with its motherboard partners to gauge support for it continuing to develop chipsets in the future.
The motherboard makers' response? Silence.
It is still early days and not all the facts are known at the time of writing, but it is believed Nvidia will transfer the chipset team to working on GPU projects. On the motherboard makers' side, some makers have already canceled upcoming high-end motherboard projects based on the nForce 7-series chipset.
The loss of its chipset business is expected to have a significant impact on Nvidia's GPU business in the short-term. Reception to the nForce 200 chip (BR04) which will enable SLI technology on Intel X58 motherboards has been lukewarm at best, with many makers saying they will not bother adding the chip on their boards. This means Nvidia needs to find a way of licensing and enabling multi-GPU support on motherboards using Intel and/or AMD chipsets fast. Otherwise it will have to cede the top-end of the graphics card market to AMD, which now has the benefit of Crossfire.
The news would also debunk any recent speculation that Apple will be adopting Nvidia chipsets for its upcoming notebook products. It would be unfortunate if Apple really has poured water on the close relationship it has built with Intel over the past few years, only to have its new best friend exit the market before products are even announced.
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