ATI and Nvidia set sights on integrated graphics ICs
By Bruce Gain, EBN
Nov 27, 2001 (3:27 PM)
URL: ebnews.com
In a move to expand their respective territories by offering PC OEMs a greater range of options, ATI Technologies Inc. and Nvidia Corp. are turning their attention to the underserved integrated graphics IC market.
With Intel Corp. as a formidable opponent, the companies are banking that their successes in the discrete graphics sector will translate into new classes of performance in the embedded space.
In fact, the resulting three-way competition is expected to segment the integrated market in much the way that the discrete graphics and CPU markets have been parsed into multiple performance niches. However, as ATI and Nvidia try to undermine Intel's dominant position by integrating graphics capabilities with the CPU chipset and memory, they must remain on guard to conserve board space, power, and, above all, cost, according to analysts.
“Graphics companies are now creating a [performance-based] integrated segment,” said Philip Eisler, general manager of the mobile graphics division at ATI, Markham, Ontario. “In the near future, integrated graphics packages will offer the same kinds of very high-end capabilities provided by today's discrete graphics, at a medium-range price point.”
Already, ATI has revealed plans to introduce an integrated platform before the end of the year based on a high-performance Radeon processor that will use the Pentium 4 processor bus the company licensed from Intel.
Nvidia's nForce
Nvidia, meanwhile, has unveiled the nForce integrated north bridge/graphics processor, which supports Advanced Micro Devices Inc.'s Athlon 4. The nForce-based GeForce2 core offers a lower price by embedding audio and video functions, according to Nvidia, Santa Clara, Calif. At the same time, the combination of the GeForce2, media and communications processor, and 128Mbits of memory achieves the same performance as Nvidia's stand-alone graphics processor.
“When you look at the Nforce, it pretty much performs at the speed of the GeForce2, which was the core that we integrated,” said Dan Vivoli, the company's vice president of strategic marketing.
ATI and Nvidia aren't the only companies vying for a piece of the integrated graphics chipset market. Two other companies licensed to use Intel's processor bus, Silicon Integrated Systems Inc. and Acer Laboratories Inc., are expected to begin shipping integrated graphics chipsets by year's end. Via Technologies Inc. also recently unveiled an unlicensed P4 chipset with an integrated graphics IC capability.
For its part, Intel said it has no plans to integrate a graphics core into its 845 chipset for the Pentium 4-either for the desktop or laptop-before the second half of next year, at which point the company in theory would be equipped to play in the high-end market.
In the meantime, ATI and Nvidia could have a niche to exploit as Intel readies its first significant graphics core upgrade in more than four years, according to analysts.
“Intel has been rapidly transitioning to Pentium 4, and the net result is that they are rapidly transitioning that market to a market for which they don't have integrated graphics,” said Dean McCarron, an analyst at Mercury Research Inc., Scottsdale, Ariz. “Intel's presence [in this market] is plunging because they are relying on Pentium III to deploy integrated graphics and it's opening up an opportunity for the stand-alone graphics suppliers.
“And if you don't have any integrated solution, you have to use a stand-alone chip from” a third party, McCarron said.
Intel's plans
Though it offered no architectural details, Intel said its current roadmap will enable it to retain and even increase its integrat-ed graphics market share. “Our graphics performances will be competitive across the gamut,” said Don MacDonald, director of the Intel Mobile Platform Group. “We will compete against Nvidia and ATI in the high end as well as low end.”
However, given the constant incremental improvements companies like ATI and Nvidia make to their graphics ICs, and taking into consideration the cost of development, Vivoli questioned Intel's long-term commitment to the graphics market.
“Graphics processors have over 200 million transistors, and we figure that it costs about $1 a transistor to build a new graphics processor today,” he said. “That's a $200 million investment, and while Intel has the pockets to do that, the question is whether they would or not.”
Still, while ATI and Nvidia have well-developed graphics R&D muscles, observers say that Intel remains well positioned to maintain its share of the embedded graphics market, particularly in mobile applications like notebook PCs, where power consumption is key.
“We'll focus our integrated graphics capabilities on notebooks, which is the fastest growth sector now in the PC industry,” MacDonald said.
As it tries to infiltrate the integrated desktop and notebook graphics segments, Nvidia is developing close ties with AMD through its support of the Athlon 4. But this relationship is unlikely to gain Nvidia an immediate leg up in the portable space as AMD has yet to introduce a low-power processor. ATI has disclosed no plans to enter the mobile integrated market.
What's more, with a 75% share of the PC processor market, Intel exercises considerable influence as to which players will establish a volume business in embedded graphics, according to Nathan Brookwood, an analyst at Insight64, Saratoga, Calif.
“Intel is positioned to continue to dominate the notebook graphics sector, as it is unlikely that ATI or Nvidia will find a viable processor partner in the near term,” Brookwood said.
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