NVIDIA Suspends Chipset Development

Oct 12, 2009

Marcel Hilzinger

NVIDIA is temporarily suspending its chipset and CPU business until it settles matters with rival Intel. Its GeForce 9400M and ION brands will not be effected.

As Ars Technica reports, NVIDIA is putting its chipset and CPU production temporarily on ice. Officially NVIDIA says that its integrated solution "has a long healthy life ahead," but their ongoing patent dispute with Intel has proved too much for them, forcing them into postponement mode. Intel, for one thing, claims that NVIDIA is not licensed for the new DMI bus. Until this and other Intel claims are cleared up, NVIDIA will put no more investment into their chipset production. That the chipmaker has been running into a wall with its CPU production has also long been suspected.

However, Ars Technica believes that business reasons accompany the legal ones. NVIDIA is also likely to withdraw its joint chipset production with AMD. Linux has supported most NVIDIA chipsets flawlessly over the last few years, with only some initial glitches and problems with very specialized motherboards. Unlike with graphics cards, free drivers for these chipsets were pretty much always available.

Related content

Linux Graphics Survey: NVIDIA Leads, Intel Catching Up

More than 14,000 users participated in this year's Linux graphics survey from Phoronix. The results of the study are now out.

more »
ASK KLAUS!

Klaus Knopper is the creator of Knoppix and co-founder of the LinuxTag expo. He currently works as a teacher, programmer, and consultant. If you have a configuration problem, or if you just want to learn more about how Linux works, send your questions to: klaus@linux-magazine. com

more »
Ask Klaus!

Klaus Knopper is the creator of Knoppix and co-founder of LinuxTag expo. He works as a teacher, programmer, and consultant. If you have a configuration problem, or if you just want to learn more about how Linux works, send your questions to: klaus@linux-magazine.com

more »
Nvidia Updates Its Linux Graphics Driver

After a few beta versions and months of news blackout, Nvidia has now released a robust version of its proprietary graphics card driver for Linux. Driver version 177.80 is to include 25 enhancements, among them the highly awaited support for GeForce GTX series cards.

more »
Intel Atom Platform: Smaller, More Energy-Efficient

Intel's reworked Atom platform enhances netbooks and Internet devices with integrated graphics and memory controller.

more »