Q1 NVIDIA results SSDs at $1/GB end 2012? May 17th for the GeForce GTX 560s New Atom architecture for 22nm Report: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 590

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Q1 NVIDIA results   Posted on 13/05/2011 at 21:13 by Guillaume - source: TechEye.net

	The graphics chip manufacturer has just announced its financial results for the first quarter. They have announced revenue of USD 962 million. This is an 8.5% increse on the previous quarter but is 4% down on a year ago. In terms of net profits, the company is at USD 135.2 million as against USD 171.7 for the fourth quarter. NVIDIA recorded a payment of USD 57 million from Intel for the last quarter which boosted results following the settlement we reported on at the beginning of the year. For this quarter the Intel payment only amounted to USD 22 million. Last year, in spite of the financial downturn and without any Intel payments, NVIDIA recorded profits of USD 137.6 million. As we explained last week developments in the graphics chip market are having an impact on NVIDIA though the Tegra division was up 78.2%. The launch of Tegra 2 tablets such as the Motorola Xoom and its clones (Tegra 2 was part of the reference design validated for Honeycomb by Google, which is why it’s used on all Android tablets) has had a positive impact. In terms of smartphones, the Droid X2 will be launched on May 26th.

SSDs at $1/GB end 2012?   Posted on 13/05/2011 at 20:14 by Guillaume

	Gartner have just published a few predictions with respect to SSD pricing. Reported by PC World, they indicate that while SSDs are starting to make more of an impact on the enterprise market, adoption by the general consumer is still limited by pricing. Gartner are predicting a 30% fall in SSD pricing this year and another 36% next. This would give us a price of $1 per GB for the second half of 2012. Currently the price per GB of an SSD such as the Crucial M4 256 GB is $2.03/GB on the other side of the Atlantic (VAT not included). Several factors will come into play including an improvement in fabrication processes and an increase in production to respond to demand. While the price of chips may well be coming down this is not necessarily immediately reflected in the price of SSDs to the consumer. Few manufacturers have significantly reduced pricing following the movement from 34/32/nm to 25nm for example, with the trend actually going in the other direction on launch.

May 17th for the GeForce GTX 560s   Posted on 13/05/2011 at 18:50 by Guillaume

	Following the launch of the GeForce GTX 560 Ti (see our test here), NVIDIA is getting ready to launch a more affordable version called, surprise surprise, the GTX 560. NVIDIA has just announced that it will be launched on May 17th. They have taken the opportunity to publish a few screenshots and videos of three forthcoming games titles: Duke Nukem Forever, Alice Madness Returns and Dungeon Siege III. One of the screenshots for Duke Nukem Forever You can see them on the NVIDIA site.

New Atom architecture for 22nm   Posted on 13/05/2011 at 12:08 by Guillaume

	Cnet (relayed by Anandtech have published a few details on the future Atom architecture, starting with a codename: Silvermont. The other news is that there will (finally!) be a new architecture for the Atom cores which hadn’t changed since they were introduced back in 2008. There’s speculation that Intel has abandoned the in-order pipeline and gone back to an out-of-order architecture. Intel had been working on the principle of a five year life cycle for the Atom architecture but what with the explosion of competiton in the mobility sector (from AMD and ARM) this no longer make much sense. According to Cnet, Intel will be coming back to a two-year development cycle in line with the other processor ranges. In terms of availability, as we mentioned during our presentation of the 22nm engraving, Intel is using a distinct fabrication process adapted to SoCs for the Atoms (P1271 for the 22nm process) and this is still separate from the launch of the standard process. Thus, though the first 32nm processors were available in January 2010, the Atom 32 nms won’t be on the market until the end of 2011. With the launch of Windows 8 (ARM compatible) coming at the end of 2012, it’s in Intel’s best interests to accelerate the Silvermont launch. For the time being, Cnet are talking about 2013.

Report: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 590   Posted on 13/05/2011 at 00:00 by Damien

	NVIDIA has been preparing the bi-GPU GeForce GTX 590 for a few months now, ready to do battle with the AMD Radeon HD 6990. Out of the question to allow the competition to parade itself at the top of the graphics card classifications, especially after being vanquished by the Radeon HD 5970 last time out. With less successful handling of energy consumption, NVIDIA’s task was a tough one but they were nevertheless able to take advantage of successive AMD delays to hone their drivers and adapt the positioning of the GeForce GTX 590 to the performances of the Radeon HD 6990. Will there be a clearcut winner in this duel? To answer this question we put the cards through our test at standard resolutions, in surround and 3D Vision, without forgetting heat management and noise levels… > Report: NVIDIA responds to AMD with the GeForce GTX 590