Sources told DigiTimes that NVIDIA is looking to get back into the chipset market with a new product that combines a southbridge and a GPU. According to the article, the chip will be about $10 to $15 cheaper than Intel's standard southbridge chipsets:
The makers stated that legal considerations, in terms of permission from Intel for Nvidia to participate in the chipset business, should be made smoother by the recent lawsuit the US Fair Trade Commission (FTC) took up with Intel. However, Intel is not expected to start any such negotiations with Nvidia in the near future, the sources speculated.
Therefore, Nvidia is developing the new chipset to bypass Intel's new Sandy Bridge architecture, which combines CPU and northbridge chipsets. Nvidia's expected business model would be for motherboard makers to purchase Intel's Sandy Bridge solution without the southbridge solution (Cougar Point). This would save the makers US$10-15, and that money could be applied to purchasing Nvidia's combo solution, though the sources did not comment on any Nvidia pricing..
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