Nvidia corporation

1. Nvidia corporation Ben Wilson COMP 1631 Winter 2011

2. Introduction • NVIDIA is a multinational corporation • Specialize in the development of graphics processing units and chipset technologies • Products are generally used in workstations, personal computers, and mobile devices • Base: Santa Clara, California, United States

3. Introduction (continued) • NVIDIA is considered a public corporation on the NASDAQ: NVDA exchange • NVIDIA is part of the Semiconductors – Specialized industry • NVIDIA was founded in 1983 by: • Jen-Hsun Huang • Chris Malachowsky • Curtis Priem

4. The name • The “N” is derived from the pronumeral in mathematical statements • The root of video from the Latin word videremeaning to see • When spoken NVIDIA phonetically suggests envy, as demonstrated in their release of their GeForce 8 Series dubbed “Green with envy.” • NVIDIA’s company name if officially entirely uppercase on their technical documentation, website (http://www.nvidia.com), and press releases.

5. Important persons • Jen-HsunHuang – President & CEO • Chris Malachowsky – NVIDIA Fellow; Senior VP, Engineering and Operations • Jonah M. Alben – VP, GPU Engineering • Debora Shoquist – SVP, Operations • Dr. Ranga Jayaraman – CIO

6. Nvidia IS A MAJOR designer/supplier of… • Integrated circuits (ICs) • Graphics processing units (GPUs) • Chipsets used in: • Graphics cards • Personal computer motherboards • Video game consoles

7. Notable product lines include • The GeForce series for pro gaming • The Tesla series for supercomputing • The Quadro series for computer-aided design and for digital content creation on workstations • The nForce series of integrated motherboard chipsets • The Tegra for mobile devices

8. Acquisitions • Intellectual assets of 3dfx (2000) • Exluna (2002) • MediaQ (2002) • iReady (2005) • ULI Electronics (2005) • Hybrid Graphics (2006) • PortalPlayer Inc. (2007) • Ageia Technologies (2008)

9. Market and product history • Can be divided into a few eras: • Before DirectX • Transition to DirectX • Ascendancy: RIVA TNT • Market Leadership: GeForce • Stumbles with the FX series • GeForce 6 Series • Unified Architecture with the 8-series and Later • GPU controversies for Laptops/Notebooks

10. Before DirectX • First graphics card released in 1995 – the “NV1” • Used quadratic surfaces and a playback-only sound card • Enabled users to play Sega Saturn games on a PC • Faced several competing proprietary standards • Hype died when Microsoft’s new specifications were based on polygons, leading to subsequent developments • The NV2 project was started in conjunction with Sega seeking to reduced console manufacturing costs by combining both graphics and sound capabilities • A finished product never came out due to the problems associated with implementing quadratic surfaces

11. Transition to DirectX • Seeking to provide full support for DirectX, NVIDIA reshaped their policies and ideas including: • Hiring David Kirk as Chief Scientist • Combining 3D hardware with their better understanding of rendering • Imposing an internal 6-month product cycle, which mitigates failure by the introduction of a new, better product • Just as the industry suspected NVIDIA had ceased research, they released the RIVA 128 in 1997 • The RIVA 128 blew away competition with its low cost and high performance

12. Ascendancy: RIVa TNT • Could it be possible to double the number of pixel pipelines in the chip? NVIDIA said YES • The TwiN Texel (RIVA TNT) was developed • Had multiple revolutionary benefits • However, failed to hit expected clock time, and improvements had to be made • RIVA TNT2 and TNT2 Ultra developed • NVIDIA was now finally competing with rivals such as 3dfx and Voodoo3 • The new 6-month product cycle proved to be successful and encouraged innovation

13. Market leadership: geforce • GeForce 256 (NV10) released in 1999 • Introduces on-board transformation and lighting technology • Greatly outperformed all existing products • Due to success, NVIDIA was issued a contract to develop for Microsoft’s Xbox • GeForce2 GTS shipped in 2000 • GeForce2 MX shipped later in 2000 • GeForce2 Go shipped at the end of 2000 • NVIDIA’s success put 3dfx and Voodoo to shame, causing their eventual demise • GeForce3 and GeForce4 Ti, MX, and Go introduced

14. Stumbles with the fx series • NVIDIA’s only remaining true competitor was ATI Technologies • The two companies remained in competition for quite some time • NVIDIA developed the GeForce FX chips and focused on developments for Xbox • ATI developed the Radeon 9700 • Relations with Microsoft deteriorated due to financial arguments requiring arbitration • Microsoft preceded to consult ATI rather than NVIDIA with regards to development of the DirectX 9 specification • With this, NVIDIA temporarily ceded market dominance to ATI

15. Geforce 6 series • The previous performance problems working with DirectX 9 were eliminated with the introduction of the GeForce 6 series • As products developed by ATI and NVIDIA became less differentiable, price/performance ratio became the main concern • At this time (2004 and onward) technology was increasing more rapidly than ever • The two companies gained the upper hand in their own respective areas • NVIDIA introduced the Scalable Link Interface which used two cards, dramatically upping quality and flexibility • With this innovation, Sony selected NVIDIA to develop the RSX chip to be used in the PlayStation 3

16. Unified architecture with 8-series & later • GeForce 8 released by the end of 2006 • Features revolutionary Unified Shader Architecture • This was used to provide support for General Purpose Computing on GPU • “Compute only” devices introduced: NVIDIA Tesla • NVIDIA introduces world’s first C programming language • Flagship GPUs introduced in 2008: GTX 260 and GTX 280 • GeForce 400 Series introduced in 2010 • In recent years NVIDIA has worked hardest to improve chip internal efficiency and to lower costs in order to compete with competitor pricing

17. GPU Controversies for laptops/notebooks • Problems with increased rates of failure in certain mobile video adapters have caused some manufacturers of notebooks have relegated their contracts and loyalty to ATI • In order to maintain their customer base NVIDIA agreed to pay $200 per affected notebook to manufacturers such as Dell & HP. • More defects began to surface with regards to Apple Inc.’s MacBook Pro laptops • A single class-action lawsuit was eventually filed against NVIDIA for withholding information regarding the extent of their manufacturing problems

18. Current work • Computer graphics • Physical simulation • Scientific computing • Computational photography • Programming languages • Circuit design • Computer architecture • Recently, as indicated, graphics chips are being used not only for graphics, but also other kinds of high-end computation.

19. references "Creative Labs Graphics Blaster RIVA TNT : Comparison of Graphics Cards with NVIDIA's RIVA TNT Chip." Tom's Hardware: Hardware News, Tests and Reviews. Web. 01 Feb. 2011. <http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/comparison-graphics-cards- nvidia,96-15.html>. "NVIDIA Corporation: NASDAQ:NVDA Quotes & News - Google Finance." Google. Web. 01 Feb. 2011. <http://www.google.com/finance?q=NASDAQ:NVDA>. "NVIDIA: Research." Research | Research. Web. 01 Feb. 2011. <http://research.nvidia.com/>. "NVIDIA Research Staff | Research." Research | Research. Web. 01 Feb. 2011. <http:// research.nvidia.com/nvpeople>. "NVIDIA Rocks the Boat with TNT2 : Introduction." Tom's Hardware: Hardware News, Tests and Reviews. Web. 01 Feb. 2011. <http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/nvidia- rocks-boat-tnt2,102.html>. "Nvidia." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 01 Feb. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Nvidia>.