NVIDIA Corporation offers programmable graphics processor technologies worldwide. The company’s products are used on consumer and professional computing devices. Its products are used by original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), original design manufacturers (ODMs), add-in-card manufacturers, system builders and consumer electronics companies worldwide.
Segments
The company has four major product-line operating segments: the graphics processing units (GPU Business), media and communications processors (MCP Business), Handheld GPU Business, and Consumer Electronics Business.
GPU Business
The company’s GPU Business includes products that support desktop personal computers (PCs), notebook PCs, professional workstations and other GPU-based products. Its GPUs are designed to deliver performance and visual quality for PC-based applications, such as manufacturing, science, e-business, entertainment and education.
The company’s GPU products support desktop PCs, notebook PCs, professional workstations and other GPU-based products. The company has three major families of GPUs: GeForce, Go and NVIDIA Quadro.
GeForce: The GeForce family represents its desktop GPUs and includes the GeForce 8, GeForce7, GeForce 6, and GeForce FX families. During the period ended January 28, 2007, the company shipped eight new GeForce 7 series GPUs for desktop and notebook PCs, expanding its offering of products in the GeForce 7 GPU family. Also it shipped its first Quad SLI system for desktop PCs, enabling the use of four GPUs per system. The company also shipped the GeForce 7950 GX2, which provides the resolution of cinematic film and brought the 16:9 panoramic experience of cinema to gaming. The company also announced PureVideo HD technology, a combination of hardware acceleration from an NVIDIA GPU, high definition movie player integration and HDCP feature support, to enable manufacturers and consumers to build PCs that can play HD DVD or Blu-ray movies. It also introduced its primary GPU series, the GeForce 8800. The GeForce 8800 is the unified shader GPU to support the new Microsoft DirectX 10 API.
GeForce Go and NVIDIA Quadro Go: The GeForce Go and NVIDIA Quadro Go families represent the company’s notebook GPUs and include the GeForce 7 Go, GeForce 6 Go, and NVIDIA QuadroFX Go GPUs. These GPUs are designed to deliver desktop graphics performance and features for multiple notebook configurations from desktop replacements, multimedia notebooks and thin-and-lights to notebook workstations. The GeForce Go products are designed to serve the needs of both professional and consumer users. The NVIDIA Quadro Go products are designed to serve the needs of workstation professionals in the area of product design and digital content creation. The company has introduced a family of notebook GPUs, the GeForce Go 7900, 7800, 7600 and 7400 families, all based on its second generation Shader Model 3.0 architecture and designed to deliver 3D, HD home theatre-quality video and power management to the notebook segment. In March 2006, the company shipped the GeForce Go 7900 and GeForce 7800 GTX notebook products that feature SLI technology for notebook PCs. It launched its first notebook GPU, the NVIDIA Quadro NVS, targeted specifically for business use. NVIDIA Quadro NVS graphics solutions provide business customers with notebooks. The company also launched the NVIDIA Quadro FX 3500M, a mobile workstation graphic solution for computer aided design (CAD), Digital Content Creation, and Scientific Visualization.
NVIDIA Quadro: The NVIDIA Quadro branded products are professional workstation solutions that are available for high-end, mid-range, entry-level and multi-display product lines. The NVIDIA Quadro family, which consists of the NVIDIA Quadro Plex VCS, NVIDIA Quadro FX, NVIDIA Quadro4 and the NVIDIA Quadro NVS professional workstation processors, is designed to meet the needs of various workstation applications, such as industrial product design, digital content creation, non-linear video editing, scientific and medical visualization, general purpose business and financial trading. NVIDIA Quadro products are certified by various software developers for professional workstation applications and are designed to deliver the graphics performance and precision required by professional applications. In August 2006, the company introduced the NVIDIA Quadro Plex 1000, a Visual Computing System (VCS). The NVIDIA Quadro Plex 1000 offers scalability in a desktop or dense three unit rackmount configuration for professional applications, such as those powering multiple streams of 4K high-definition video, 3D styling and design, scientific and medical visualization, oil and gas exploration, or visual simulation and training.
MCP Business
The company's MCP Business includes NVIDIA nForce products that operate as a single-chip or chipset that provide system functions, such as high speed storage and network communications, and perform these operations independently from the host central processing unit (CPU). The company’s MCPs perform demanding multimedia processing for broadband connectivity, communications and storage. The company’s handheld GPUs deliver a visual experience by accelerating graphics and video applications. NVIDIA nForce supports desktop PCs, notebook PCs, professional workstations and servers.
NVIDIA nForce: The NVIDIA nForce family represents the company’s MCPs for Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD) and Intel Corporation, or Intel-based desktop PCs, notebook PCs, professional workstations and servers and includes the NVIDIA nForce4, NVIDIA nForce Professional, NVIDIA nForce 500 series for AMD and Intel, NVIDIA nForce 600 series for AMD and Intel, and GeForce 6100 Series GPUs and nForce 400 Series MCP motherboard solutions.
MCP is a single-chip or chipset that provides system functions, such as high speed storage and network communications, and performs these operations independently from the host CPU. The company offers the GeForce 6100 Series GPU and NVIDIA nForce 400 Series MCP. In January 2006, the company launched two new MCPs for the Intel platform, the NVIDIA nForce4 SLI XE and NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra, both of which provide the system-builder and do-it-yourself communities with discrete motherboard solutions for Intel PC platforms. In March 2006, the company shipped its integrated graphics processor (IGP), core-logic solution for AMD-based notebook PCs, the GeForce Go 6100 GPU and NVIDIA nForce Go 430 MCP. This core logic solution provides hardware accelerated H.264 high-definition video playback. In May 2006, the company shipped its NVIDIA nForce 590 SLI, a motherboard solution for x86 PC platforms. In November 2006, the company launched the NVIDIA nForce 680 SLI MCP, which is designed specifically for Intel Core 2 Quad and Core 2 Duo processors.
Handheld GPU Business
The company's Handheld GPU Business includes products that support handheld personal digital assistants (PDAs), cellular phones and other handheld devices. Its Handheld GPU product family, known as GoForce, supports handheld PDAs and multimedia cellular phones. In March 2006, the company and Intel announced a collaboration to bring a high-performance 3D gaming and multimedia platform to handheld devices.
GoForce: The GoForce family represents the company’s handheld GPUs for a range of multimedia cellular phones and handheld devices. The GoForce 2100 and 2150 are two handheld GPUs that offer hardware acceleration engines for 2D graphics to manufacturers that support liquid crystal display (LCD), screen resolutions up to 320 x 240 pixels. The GoForce 3000 and 4000 offer a host of features for cellular phones and PDAs, including support for up to 3-megapixel image capture, accelerated graphics for gaming, and motion Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) capture and playback.
The company’s GoForce 3D 4000, 4500 and 4800 handheld GPUs provide programmable 3D shaders, along with multi-megapixel still image and video processing in a single-chip package. Motorola, Inc., and Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB, launched Third Generation (3G) models of their RAZR and Walkman portable phones, respectively, that are both powered by its GoForce GPUs. The company’s GoForce handheld GPUs are shipping in the Motorola 3G RAZR V3X, SLVR L6i, SLVR L7i, MOTORAZR Maxx, and Sony Ericsson Walkman phones. The company’s newest handheld GPU, the NVIDIA GoForce 5500 GPU, has been designed into Digital Video Broadcast - Handheld, or DVB-H, phones in North America, Europe, and Integrated Services Digital Broadcasting - Terrestrial, or ISDB-T, in Japan.
The company also offers NVIDIA GoForce 6100, an application processor, which is a multimedia solution that supports computationally intensive multimedia codecs as well as an audio subsystem, integrated WiFi and USB 2.0.
Consumer Electronics Business
The company's Consumer Electronics Business is concentrated in products that support video game consoles and other digital consumer electronics devices.
Playstation3: In 2005, the company finalized its initial agreement with Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE) to jointly develop a custom GPU for SCE’s PlayStation3. SCE launched sales of the PlayStation 3 computer entertainment system in November 2006.
Xbox: The company’s Xbox platform processor supported Microsoft’s initial Xbox video game console. The Xbox platform processor featured dual-processing architecture, which included its GPU designed specifically for the Xbox, or XGPU, and its MCP to power the Xbox’s graphics, audio and networking capabilities. The company also has a license agreement with Microsoft relating to the successor product to their initial Xbox gaming console, the Xbox360, and related devices.
Customers
The company sells its digital media processors directly to distributors, contract equipment manufacturers (CEMs), ODMs, motherboard manufacturers and add-in board manufacturers, which then sell boards and systems with its products to OEMs, retail outlets and to various system integrators. The company's primary customer includes Asustek Computer, Inc.
Manufacturing and Suppliers
The company utilizes various suppliers, such as Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing (Chartered); Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC); Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation (TSMC); United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC); and American MicroSemiconductor (AMS) to produce its semiconductor wafers. The company then utilizes independent subcontractors, such as Advanced Semiconductor Engineering (ASE); Amkor Technology (Amkor); King Yuan Electronics Co., LTD (KYEC); Siliconware Precision Industries Company, Ltd. (SPIL), and STATS ChipPAC Incorporated (ChipPAC), to perform assembly, testing and packaging of most of its products.
Acquisitions
The company completed its acquisition of ULi Electronics, Inc. (ULi), a core logic developer for the PC industry.
In March 2006, the company acquired Hybrid Graphics, Ltd., a developer of embedded 2D and 3D graphics software for handheld devices.
In January 2007, the company completed its acquisition of PortalPlayer, Inc., a supplier of semiconductors, firmware, and software for personal media players (PMPs) and secondary display-enabled computers.
Competition
The company’s competitors include the following: suppliers of discrete MCPs that incorporate a combination of networking, audio, communications and input/output, or I/O, functionality as part of their existing solutions, such as AMD, as a result of its acquisition of ATI Technologies, Inc. (ATI), Broadcom Corporation (Broadcom), Silicon Integrated Systems, Inc. (SIS), and VIA Technologies, Inc. (VIA), and Intel; suppliers of GPUs, including MCPs that incorporate 3D graphics functionality as part of their existing solutions, such as AMD, Intel, Matrox Electronics Systems, Ltd., XGI Technology, Inc., SIS, and VIA; suppliers of GPUs or GPU intellectual property for handheld and embedded devices that incorporate advanced graphics functionality as part of their existing solutions, such as AMD, Broadcom, Fujitsu Limited, Imagination Technologies, Ltd., ARM Holdings plc, Marvell Technology Group, Ltd, or Marvell, NEC Corporation, Qualcomm Incorporated, Renesas Technology, Seiko-Epson, Texas Instruments Incorporated, and Toshiba America, Inc.; and suppliers of application processors for handheld and embedded devices that incorporate multimedia processing as part of their existing solutions, such as Broadcom, Texas Instruments, Inc., Qualcomm Incorporated, Marvell, Freescale Semiconductor, Inc., Samsung and ST Microelectronics.
History
NVIDIA Corporation was incorporated in 1993.
