- Back to homepage

Nvidia May Have to Drop or Open SLI Due to Issues with Processor Bus License

@ 2008/02/23

If rumours about Nvidia’s inability to get a license to produce Intel Common Serial Interface (CSI) bus compatible chipsets are correct, its multi-GPU technology SLI may either disappear from the market or Nvidia may change its SLI licensing policy and open up the technology for others.

At present Nvidia SLI multi-GPU systems may feature two, three or even four graphics processing units (GPUs) by Nvidia Corp. to speed up graphics rendering speed in games. One substantial peculiarity of Nvidia SLI multi-GPU technology is that several graphics cards have to be installed on a mainboard that is based on Nvidia nForce SLI core-logic.

Comment from Kougar @ 2008/02/24

Huh? I thought Crossfire had to be lincensed...?

Quote:

By contrast, ATI CrossFire and CrossFire X multi-GPU technologies that allow several ATI Radeon graphics cards to work in cooperation can be enabled on any third-party chipset, but not Nvidia’s (due to prohibition of Nvidia).

What I find more surprising is the article's clear focus on how this will impact SLI, and not about how it would spell the end of Nvidia's chipset business.

All information and graphics contained in Madshrimps are sole property of the Madshrimps crew and may not be reproduced or copied in any manner without written permission from us.