Nvidia works out way in Intel Nehalem squabble - Well there's SLI, but Larrabee looms

By C Shanti @ Monday, July 14, 2008 9:48 AM

Section - PCs/Graphics

Graphics firm Nvidia reckons it has worked out a way to implement its SLI graphics with future Intel Nehalem CPU architecture – by designing its own bridging chip.

According to the Wall Street Journal (subscription required), Nvidia  is in a squabble with Intel over the terms of its agreement to make chipsets which both firms signed in 2003.

The report claimed Intel told Nvidia that 2003 agreement doesn’t apply to its next generation Nehalem. So Nvidia will design a chip which will work with its SLI graphics rather than wait for Intel to say yea or nay.

There is obviously more to this than meets the eye. Nvidia’s Jen Hsen Huang, the CEO, has been rather outspoken about Intel for much of this year. He has dissed the concept of multicore chips, has cast scorn on Intel’s own plans for discrete graphics cards under the codename Larrabee, and struck a deal with Taiwanese firm Via recently.

That deal delighted a Via executive so much that he planted a kiss on an Nvidia executive at a trade show press conference in June.  X