Fuad's musings on HSI bridge chip costs

[kemosabe]

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=15007

$5 seems credible, but I would have thought NVDA would absorb the cost to keep its AIB partners happy. Then again, maybe it's all more BS.

 

[anaqer]

Five bucks for a bridge, that's a bargain folks!

 

[Evildeus]

5$? Seems a lot to me. Isn't it? :?

 

[Dave Baumann]

TAIWANESE FRIENDS of Nvidia are up in arms about its small translator chip, part of its PCI Express HIS (High Speed Interconnect) shop frontage

I see Fudo uses Word.

 

[kemosabe]

5$? Seems a lot to me. Isn't it? :?

Not much for a high-end part, but a fixed $5 cost would certainly eat into the already small profit margins on NV34-class chips.

 

[Evildeus]

5$? Seems a lot to me. Isn't it? :?

Not much for a high-end part, but a fixed $5 cost would certainly eat into the already small profit margin on NV34-class chips.

Yes, but i'm talking of the figure in absolute. I would say that the HIS would cost less than 1$, but well i've got no idea also That's why i'm asking.

 

[Dave Baumann]

I recently talked with David Kirk about the costs of the bridge and he told me that the expectation was that the cost of a PCI-Express graphics card (bridged or not) would be around $10 more than an AGP version. I asked ATI about this and they said that they would be offering their directly comparable AGP and PCi-Express variants at the same price - I also more recently talked to Dell about PCI-Express and according to Dell one of the main points from the SIG is that the incroduction of PCI-Express bussed systems would be price comparable to PCI systems and that Dell are expecting no extra costs in the initial shift from the PCI to PCI-Express.

 

[Evildeus]

Thanks DB

 

[kemosabe]

I recently talked with David Kirk about the costs of the bridge and he told me that the expectation was that the cost of a PCI-Express graphics card (bridged or not) would be around $10 more than an AGP version. I asked ATI about this and they said that they would be offering their directly comparable AGP and PCi-Express variants at the same price - I also more recently talked to Dell about PCI-Express and according to Dell one of the main points from the SIG is that the incroduction of PCI-Express bussed systems would be price comparable to PCI systems and that Dell are expecting no extra costs in the initial shift from the PCI to PCI-Express.

Do you conclude from this that the incremental $10 cost will be borne by NVDA's AIB partners, or that this cost will ultimately be passed on to consumers who buy their PCI-E cards?

 

[kemosabe]

ATI also claims its design is more economical, as individual bridge chips are expected to add somewhere around $8 to each of NVIDIA's boards. NVIDIA counters that its pricing is already set, and there won't be a pricing change in light of the bridge chip.

http://www.pciexpressdevnet.org/news/archive/msg00697.html