Nvidia vice president firmly denies CPU rumours

 

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Posted on 27 Aug 2008 at 00:16

A senior vice president of Nvidia has denied rumours that the company is planning an entry into the x86 CPU market.

Though the company has never formally suggested it might build a CPU, commentators have noted that its major competitors, AMD and Intel, offer integrated CPU and GPU platforms, and speculation has been rife that Nvidia might develop a platform of its own.

Chairman Jen-Hsun Huang, a co-founder of the company, did nothing to quash the notion at his press conference on the opening day of NVISION, affirming merely that "we believe in x86... we believe in heterogeneous computing."

Nvidia to "stay focused" on graphics

But speaking to PC Pro, Chris Malachowsky, another co-founder and senior vice president, was unequivocal.

"That's not our business," he insisted. "It's not our business to build a CPU. We're a visual computing company, and I think the reason we've survived the other 35 companies who were making graphics at the start is that we've stayed focused."

He also pointed out that such a move would expose the company to fierce competition. "Are we likely to build a CPU and take out Intel?" he asked."I don't think so, given their thirty-year head start and billions and billions of dollars invested in it. I think staying focused is our best strategy."

More laughs at Larrabee

Like everybody at NVISION, Malachowsky was dismissive of the threat from Intel's Larrabee architecture.

"If you look at a block diagram of Larrabee," he commented, "the processing elements, the fabrics, the interconnects... some special function units, some I/O, some memory controllers... then go and look at a GPU from five years ago."

"You'll see the special function units, the I/O, the memory controllers... we built 'Larrabee' five years ago."

When asked whether Nvidia's emphasis on mobile and low-power devices was intended to strengthen the company's presence in areas where Larrabee isn't competing, Malachowsky responded with ridicule, noting that Larrabee is not expected to launch until next summer.

"We're focusing 100% on areas where Larrabee isn't competing," he laughed, "because there is no Larrabee! It's a PowerPoint presentation!"

"But we are committed to mobile and low-power computing," he confirmed. "To not be committed would be corporate suicide."

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