NVIDIA shows signs ... [2008 - 2017]

[MrGaribaldi]

Yeah, too bad they burned that bridge. But since they are working with ARM chips for Tegra, it could be another option.

As for powerful enough, I agree this would probably not work as a gaming solution, but for a of HPC/GPGPU it could work. The ARM core running a "Master" kernel, launching and coordinating CUDA kernels, to avoid the long round trip to the CPU and back. Think a bit like the CELL solution, and then being able to plug in as many of these as you want, sort of a distributed solution in a single system.

EDIT: This could also be interesting in a perf/Watt perspective.

 

[Arun]

If Nvidia were to come to market with a solution with both their CUDA cores and integrated multi-core ARM chip(s), giving us a system on a card (if not chip), they could very well turn things around.

Tegra3 uses their new handheld 3D architecture (influenced by/based on G80 and GF100) that supports CUDA, taped-out in July according to semiaccurate iirc, and sampling to lead partners shortly. We'll hopefully see end-products in 2H11. I'm quite bullish on T3 in general, although I'm actually not that optimistic about CUDA adoption by devs. We'll see.

 

[liolio]

HUm... I don't want to open a new thread as I've no proper (in english) link, but did you guys heard the rumors about Orable considering buying some chips manufacturers?
What do you think? Do you think companies like ARM, AMD or Nvidia could be potential targets of suc a move?

 

[Alexko]

HUm... I don't want to open a new thread as I've no proper (in english) link, but did you guys heard the rumors about Orable considering buying some chips manufacturers?
What do you think? Do you think companies like ARM, AMD or Nvidia could be potential targets of suc a move?

I don't think buying ARM makes much sense for anyone, except as an investment, maybe, i.e. not looking for much synergy. I mean, anyone can license a core or the ISA from ARM, so why buy it?

I can't really see Oracle buying AMD either, because while they have valuable technology (Opteron, mostly) what would Oracle do with all the mainstream stuff?

Finally, I can't think of a single reason for buying NVIDIA. Has anyone even ever used GPUs for database applications?



Also, I'm a little late to the party, but about the whole HPC thing, I think NVIDIA has three major problems:

— Intel, because of AVX right now, FMA soonish (Haswell), and the Knights family;
— AMD, because of Bulldozer and its FMA, Northern Islands possibly (not sure how much of an improvement it brings in OpenCL) and mostly Fusion;
— By JH Huang's own admission, NVIDIA's HPC business is riding on the back of the volume they get in the GeForce/nForce market. Unfortunately, nForce is dead, and with APUs from both Intel and AMD, they can't hope to sell nearly as many GeForces in 2011/2012 as they used to; not to mention that they're doing pretty poorly in the high-end segment as well, these days.

 

[Babel-17]

HUm... I don't want to open a new thread as I've no proper (in english) link, but did you guys heard the rumors about Orable considering buying some chips manufacturers?
What do you think? Do you think companies like ARM, AMD or Nvidia could be potential targets of suc a move?

Here you go, I saw it at rage3d, interestingly enough.

http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthread.php?threadid=33968901

Oracle; “You’re going to see us buying chip companies” Is AMD or NVIDA the next acquisition for Oracle? Yesterday at Oracle's annual meeting in San Francisco, CEO Larry Ellison announced Oracle wants to persue Apple's model of owning more of the intellectual property in the stack they run on:

Oracle Corp., building on a run of more than 65 acquisitions during the past five years, is looking to purchase semiconductor companies and makers of industry- specific software, Chief Executive Officer Larry Ellison said.

“You’re going to see us buying chip companies,” Ellison, 66, said yesterday at Oracle’s annual meeting in San Francisco. Acquiring chipmakers would extend Oracle’s push into computer hardware, initiated in January with its purchase of Sun Microsystems Inc., a server manufacturer.

Ellison said he wants to follow the approach of Apple Inc. CEO Steve Jobs by owning more of the intellectual property that underpins computer chips. Apple has bought semiconductor makers to help develop devices such as the iPad and iPhone. Oracle already acquired some chip knowhow from Sun, which makes servers based on its own chip design, Sparc, while also using personal- computer chips from Intel Corp. and Advanced Micro Devices Inc.

Oracle may buy a semiconductor company with technology for servers, said Doug Freedman, an analyst at Gleacher & Co. in San Francisco. Potential targets include AMD, International Business Machines Corp.’s chip division and Nvidia Corp., he said.

“You’ve got to think it’s focused on enterprise hardware, on the server,” he said. “AMD jumps off the screen.”​

Source - Bloomberg News

 

[rpg.314]

Unless x86 license is transferable by sale (could be after the FTC settlement), buying AMD won't help much.

 

[Harison]

Unless x86 license is transferable by sale (could be after the FTC settlement), buying AMD won't help much.

Indeed, therefore buying AMD for Oracle wouldnt make sense. Even if they get transferred x86 license (Nvidia would get x86 as well in such a case, VIA/SIS, etc), it still wouldnt make much sense of buying AMD. Opterons wouldnt add much, while the rest of products just doesnt fit Oracle's business, unless they want to expand top to bottom, like IBM had some time ago.

 

[itsmydamnation]

i keep hearing about Oracle's business. what is Oracle's business? is that like intels business?


PS. im well aware who Oracle are and a lot of there product offerings.

 

[Harison]

i keep hearing about Oracle's business. what is Oracle's business? is that like intels business?


PS. im well aware who Oracle are and a lot of there product offerings.

Essentially its Oracle databases and Sun servers, Java, etc.

 

[itsmydamnation]

sun servers hey, yet there primary development platform is red hat . there is also a whole lot more they do then just databases. My point was intel just popped 11billion for mcafee which has been kind of crap because since then i haven't gotten any free lunches from them.

i wouldn't make assumptions about what these really big companies consider their business, as the enviroment they operate within changes so do they.

cheers

 

[flynn]

If Oracle buys Nvidia you will have to license each CUDA core for you application/game.

It's hard for me to imagine Jen-Hsun Huang and Larry Ellison in the same room, the respective egos are too big.

 

[neliz]

http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=26700

NV finally settles, opens up to bumpgate repair claims.

Now, several years - and countless repaired laptops - later, NVIDIA has finally brought the matter to an end by offering to settle the class-action lawsuit surrounding the faulty hardware.


As far as we can tell from looking over the settlement agreement, NVIDIA will have to deposit $2 million into an escrow fund. Claimants can then apply to have the costs of any repairs reimbursed or to have their notebooks repaired for free.

By settling, NVIDIA has also opted to take on the claimant's legal fees, which amount to a whopping $13 million. As well as having to pay its own legal fees, the GPU-maker loses the right to argue that the opposition's fees are disproportionate or unreasonable. Oh dear.

Of course, the company maintains that it isn't at fault, and that there was, in fact, nothing wrong with any of its GPUs.

The manufacturers of the laptops have been repairing the defect under warranty for some time - Apple even extended the warranty on affected machines by two years - meaning that there probably aren't too many people left with either defective laptops or outstanding repair bills. However, we have to wonder if the OEMs will be claiming from NVIDIA for the repairs that they were forced to pay for.

Extra fingers-in-ears-and-scream-LA-LA-LA-LA part highlighted.

A list of officially affected products (mobile) has also been released:
http://www.nvidiasettlement.com/affectedmodels.html

 

[nutball]

Extra fingers-in-ears-and-scream-LA-LA-LA-LA part highlighted.

Errr... this is quasi-standard procedure in these sorts of settlements.

 

[neliz]

Errr... this is quasi-standard procedure in these sorts of settlements.

I miss the "yeah sorry, we F'ed up, it has costed us a lot of money, but we've learned a lot and this will only make us and our products stronger.

Otherwise, it wouldn't be a settlement, but a charitative program.

 

[nutball]

Otherwise, it wouldn't be a settlement, but a charitative program.

It's a settlement in the sense that it stops NVIDIA getting their arses sued any more. It's the standard here's-some-money-to-shut-up-and-go-away thing that's happened at the end of numerous such cases involving many companies, not just NVIDIA, often to the tune of billions rather than millions of dollars. I mean I know we all here want NVIDIA to be some sort of uniquely bad bad-boys, in a different league from all the other bad-boys in the industry, in reality though most companies say very similar things when they hand over money to end these sorts of cases.

IANAL but I suspect that if they said anything different in public they'd risk getting further sued by:

a) their customers
b) their shareholders
c) both of the above

 

[Sxotty]

You know what is funny

2 Mill to owners
13 Mill to lawyers.

What a deal...

 

[trinibwoy]

Haha, that is so wrong. Justice indeed.

 

[Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.]

You know what is funny

2 Mill to owners
13 Mill to lawyers.

What a deal...

That's why lawyers are so keen to encourage and then jump on the class action bandwagon. It would never have come to that if Nvidia had simply owned up and paid up to their customers.

 

[Alexko]

Steam's latest hardware survey is out: http://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/videocard/

Nothing much to report, apart from the fact that the GTX 460 isn't selling as much as in August, but still more than any other card. Looks like the GTX 480 is already going down, though.

I guess that since Barts isn't really expected to be available until October 25 or so, October numbers won't be terribly interesting. But come December 1, we should know how well it's selling.

Also, I can't really explain the 1.18% surge for the HD 4800 series…

 

[PatrickL]

Prolly Steam driver update side effect.