Ben Wilson

COMP 1631

Winter 2011

NVIDIA CORPORATION

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

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

THE NAME

• The “N” is derived from the pronumeral in mathematical statements

• The root of video from the Latin word videre meaning 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.

IMPORTANT PERSONS

Jen-Hsun Huang – 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

NVIDIA IS A MAJOR DESIGNER/SUPPLIER OF…

Integrated circuits (ICs)

Graphics processing units (GPUs)

Chipsets used in:

o Graphics cards

o Personal computer motherboards

o Video game consoles

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

ACQUISITIONS

Intellectual assets of 3dfx (2000)

Exluna (2002)

MediaQ (2002)

iReady (2005)

ULI Electronics (2005)

Hybrid Graphics (2006)

PortalPlayer Inc. (2007)

Ageia Technologies (2008)

MARKET AND PRODUCT HISTORY

Can be divided into a few eras:

1. Before DirectX

2. Transition to DirectX

3. Ascendancy: RIVA TNT

4. Market Leadership: GeForce

5. Stumbles with the FX series

6. GeForce 6 Series

7. Unified Architecture with the 8-series and Later

8. GPU controversies for Laptops/Notebooks

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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>.