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Nvidia creating southbridge with graphics for Sandy Bridge?

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September 1, 2010, 4:40 PM EST

nvidia, sandy bridge
Nvidia may have devised a strategy to bypass Intel's northbridge blockade: flank 'em from the south. According to unnamed sources in the motherboard industry, the GPU maker plans to stuff a graphics core inside a southbridge, possibly sidestepping the existing legal restrictions. DigiTimes reports that Nvidia's product might even be $10 to $15 cheaper than Intel's offerings.

When Intel developed its Nehalem-based chips, it severed a longstanding license agreement with Nvidia. The architecture (and subsequent advancements) utilize an embedded memory controller. Intel claims these types of chips aren't included in the agreement, effectively preventing Nvidia from making northbridges that interface with Intel's latest platforms.

However, the DigiTimes report claims that "Nvidia is developing the new chipset to bypass Intel's new Sandy Bridge architecture." What's more, with the recent investigations by the US FTC and suits for unfair business practices, it would be unwise for chipzilla to do anything that could be seen as anti-competitive.

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User Comments (9)

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kg363
on September 1, 2010
5:02 PM
haha, those green gremlins

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TomSEA
on September 1, 2010
6:24 PM
You know, wouldn't it be refreshing if the big tech manufacturers worked together instead of fighting each other? I mean, there's enough money for everyone to go around. Just work together, crank out the best products and split the profits. See - not that hard!

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gwailo247
on September 1, 2010
6:28 PM
This crap is getting stupid. I lost a lot of respect for Nvidia when they announced they're going to be disabling their cards if ATI cards are detected.

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dividebyzero
on September 1, 2010
6:37 PM
@TomSEA
Technological socialism ?
You know thats not how big business rolls

@gwailo247
It's called "Return on Investment" (ROI). You see AMD handing out Eyefinity tech to nVidia, VIA and Intel ?

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LinkedKube
on September 1, 2010
7:38 PM
You know, wouldn't it be refreshing if the big tech manufacturers worked together instead of fighting each other? I mean, there's enough money for everyone to go around. Just work together, crank out the best products and split the profits. See - not that hard!
Are you a communist too?

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tengeta
on September 1, 2010
10:36 PM
You forget the ethics failures that would never allow a model like that to function.

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PanicX
on September 2, 2010
5:01 AM
TomSEA said:
You know, wouldn't it be refreshing if the big tech manufacturers worked together instead of fighting each other? I mean, there's enough money for everyone to go around. Just work together, crank out the best products and split the profits. See - not that hard!
It's anything but refreshing. When big dogs like these guys start working together, its usually against the consumer, ie price fixing.

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Xero07
on September 2, 2010
9:33 AM
Clever loophole. Somehow though I don't think it will ever take off though.

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Guest
on September 2, 2010
12:26 PM
Nobody ever saw a dog make a fair and deliberate exchange of one bone for another with another dog.

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