Nvidia, ATI boast OEM chipset wins

England 1: Argentina 0

Nvidia and ATI this week both issued press releases announcing design wins for their respective integrated
graphics chipsets. At first glance, Nvidia looks the more significant of the two.

NEC is to incorporate Nvidia's nForce graphics chipset in all its AMD Athlon consumer desktop PCs in Japan and Europe. Considering that NEC is the world's sixth biggest PC maker However, one piece of information is missing - the percentage of Athlons in the NECproduct mix. Also, NEC is not really a significant player in the consumer space in Europe - under its own name. Its retail brand is Packard Bell which does have significant market share, but is not named in this Nvidia deal.

ATI meanwhile has won FIC, PC Partner and Sapphire as customers for the RADEON IGP 320 chipset. FIC is the first company to ship a mobo with this chipset, and Sapphire and PC Partner are following close behind with one and two mobos apiece. The deals may not be big in themselves, but they show that ATI is making headway in the OEM world. A few more contracts like this and the company will have a useful revenue stream. ®

Nvidia press release
ATI FIC release