Feb 11, 2008

Nvidia dialing into mobile phones

Nvidia wants a piece of the exploding smartphone market, with its first major applications processor scheduled to arrive in phones next year.

The graphics chip company is showing off the fruits of its $357 million PortalPlayer acquisition with the APX 2500, its first attempt at building a true computing processor for mobile phones, said Mike Rayfield, general manager of Nvidia's mobile business unit. The APX 2500 is designed as a standalone application processor for multimedia phones where talking takes a back seat to watching videos and browsing the Web.



The applications processor in a mobile phone is akin to the Intel or Advanced Micro Devices CPU in a PC. Once a fairly basic part, these chips are getting more and more complex as mobile phones evolve from simple call-and-text devices to small handheld computers.

Right now, the market is dominated by companies like Texas Instruments, Samsung, Freescale Semiconductor, and Marvell, which will make it hard for Nvidia to break into this area. Unlike a PC, most people have no idea what kind of chip is in their mobile phone, so any brand recognition Nvidia might have with consumers really doesn't matter when it comes to making a decision about a phone.

But the company thinks it has two major selling points to push before handset makers and carriers: it knows how to make chips that process video and graphics, and it is throwing its hat in with Microsoft's Windows Mobile development path, Rayfield said.

The 300 or so engineers that came to Nvidia from PortalPlayer had developed a chip that could power music players like SanDisk's Sansa View, but that wasn't really suitable for mobile phones and navigation devices. Nvidia added another 300 engineers of its own to the project after the acquisition closed, and came up with the APX 2500.

The chip is based on the ARM11 core, and can run at up to 750MHz. It can encode and decode 720p high-definition video, meaning you could use a phone based on the APX 2500 as both a high-definition player and camcorder. Nvidia also added some of its GeForce graphics technology that was designed for low-power devices, which allows 3D user interfaces to run on the chip, Rayfield said.

Nvidia is pushing the APX 2500 as the fastest way for handset makers to build a smartphone based on Windows Mobile. Right now, Windows Mobile appeals more to corporate smartphone users, but according to Rayfield, Microsoft is planning to make the next version of the operating system much more consumer-friendly. Nvidia designed its chip in collaboration with Microsoft, and the next version of the operating system will be able to exploit technology within Nvidia's chip, he said.

Still, this approach limits Nvidia's early prospects, as it blocks out both Symbian, the dominant smartphone operating system, and Linux, perhaps the most promising future operating system. Nvidia is a member of Google's Open Handset Alliance, but it's taking a "wait-and-see" attitude toward Android, Rayfield said.

Nvidia has some customers lined up for the APX 2500, but it's not saying who's on board. The company is playing up the mobile phone prospects for the chip, being that it's the week of MWC, but it will also try to sell the chip to companies that make portable navigation systems and personal media players.

Rayfield and his team have their work cut out for them, trying to crack a market like this where they have little to no experience. It's still early days in the smartphone market, but it does seem like there is room for a host of players right now, unlike the PC market's early consolidation around Intel and grudging acceptance of AMD as a second source.

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What's Behind Yahoo's Rejection of Microsoft Bid?

Yahoo's rejection of Microsoft's acquisition bid is likely a negotiating strategy to elicit a higher offer and shouldn't be seen as an attempt to resist a deal at all costs, according to analysts.

Neither Microsoft nor Yahoo has many options to improve their position in online services and advertising, and combining forces is their best bet against common rival Google, analysts said.

"It's part of a larger negotiation that's occurring. Clearly, Yahoo should be and is seeking a higher bid, and this is part of that process," said Clayton Moran, a financial analyst with Stanford Group.

Yahoo is unlikely to find a company willing to bid as much as Microsoft for it, while Microsoft will not be able to attain its Internet goals by acquiring a company other than Yahoo. "While they need to negotiate and go through the process, at the end of the day this deal will happen," Moran said.

Yahoo today rejected Microsoft's bid, saying it undervalues the company. Microsoft offered to pay $31 per share for half of Yahoo's outstanding shares and 0.9509 of a Microsoft share for the other half.

At the time of the offer, Microsoft's stock stood at $32.60 and the bid was valued at $44.6 billion, a 62 percent premium over Yahoo's stock price at the time. However, the bid's value has dropped with Microsoft's sliding stock price, which at press time was $28.10. At the same time, Yahoo's stock price has risen from a close of $19.18 on the day before the bid to $29.75 at press time.
Bid Predictions

Moran predicted that Microsoft will adjust its offer so that it ends up at $35 per share, probably increasing the fixed cash portion and reducing the variable stock portion so that value is less vulnerable to Microsoft stock fluctuations. A $35-per-share offer would be a midpoint between the original bid and the $40 per share Yahoo is reportedly seeking.

"We continue to view a Yahoo sale to Microsoft as the most likely outcome," Citigroup financial analysts wrote in a note published Sunday after press reports over the weekend that Yahoo would reject the Microsoft bid. The rejection isn't surprising, but rather consistent with Yahoo's board job to "extract maximum value" for shareholders, the Citigroup analysts wrote.

Yahoo has reportedly held talks with Google and AOL to explore alternatives to a Microsoft acquisition. One scenario being floated would be for Yahoo to outsource its search advertising business to Google, while another, reported Monday by The Times of London, has Yahoo and Time Warner's AOL discussing a possible merger.

However, neither option would match the potential benefits of an acquisition by Microsoft, Moran said. "A combined Yahoo-AOL wouldn't be particularly strong, and Yahoo's stock wouldn't react favorably to that deal," Moran said. A search partnership with Google would boost Yahoo's revenue but it wouldn't address larger problems within the company, he said.

For Moran, if Yahoo has approached AOL, it has done so probably to send a message to Microsoft that it has other options and that Microsoft has to sweeten its offer. Meanwhile, Google's intervention is probably directed at complicating and lengthening the negotiation process between Microsoft and Yahoo, and thus delaying the formation of a stronger rival, Moran said.

While merging with AOL is unlikely to give Yahoo the boost it needs, such a deal would probably be more palatable to Yahoo's management, because Yahoo would be the strongest party in the fusion, according to industry analyst Greg Sterling of Sterling Market Intelligence.

"Yahoo sees its own demise in a Microsoft acquisition. My sense is that Yahoo's management believes that Yahoo's soul wouldn't survive as part of Microsoft," Sterling said.

At this point, the situation is very complicated for both Microsoft and Yahoo. If Yahoo is intent on fending off Microsoft's advances at all costs, Microsoft could opt to walk away empty-handed and face a public embarrassment, or attempt a hostile takeover, which could alienate and scare away Yahoo employees it would want to retain, Sterling said.

At the same time, Yahoo can't simply wave away a generous Microsoft offer if it doesn't have an alternative to it, Sterling said. "There is a great deal at stake for both sides, and it's very complicated," he said.

Microsoft declined to comment about Yahoo's rejection. AOL didn't immediately reply to a request for comment about its reported merger talks with Yahoo.

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ASUS P5N-T Deluxe

The new nForce 780i chipset, provided by ASUS, based on the newest Nvidia motherboard solution which should provide quite some novelties for gamers. Before we deal with the motherboard itself, let's see what those are. This is a chipset comprising the nForce 780i SLI SPP, 780i SLI MCP and nForce 200 chips. The SPP chip is in charge of communication between other motherboard parts, communicating with the CPU via the QPB bus, and via HyperTransport link with others.



The SPP also contains the memory controller which supports SLI certified memory kits with speeds as high as DDR2-1200, as well as two PCI-E 1x links. The MCP is more of a multi-purpose controller, i.e. controls the largest number of functions. It supports 10 USB 2.0 ports, has two separate Gbit LAN controllers, the Azalia audio codec, six SATAII rails, one PATA rail, five PCI lines supported, one PCI-E 8x line, four 1x and one 16x line (first gen). Beside all that, it also has the ESA (Enthusiast System Architecture) certificate, which enables real-time monitoring of all vital system info (CPU temperature and voltage, same chipset properties etc.). Finally, we have the nForce 200 chip, which only has the task of managing two remaining PCI-E 16x (second gen) lines.



With this chipset, Nvidia officially supported Penryn processors (Intel's codename for the 45 nm dual- and quad-core CPUs) and, most of all, promoted the 3-way SLI. The new SLI is the most important feature, since some 680i-based mobos can actually work with Penryn after a BIOS update. This SLI regime requires three separate graphics cards and provides performance boosts of up to 280%, which is great (if true). So far, only 8800GTX and 8800 Ultra can be connected into a three-way SLI, since they are the only ones to have the SLI connectors doubled (which is necessary to connect each card to the other two, naturally). These kinds of systems are targeting only the most hardcore gamers, who opt for the highest possible resolutions and detail levels, not giving a single thought as to how much such an option costs.



In the classic “Deluxe” packaging, recognisably one of ASUS's, we received this premium board. Before we took it out of the box, we took a moment to read the specs on the box itself. The back clearly states that this board has 8-phase voltage filtering, perfected by ASUS's engineers, as shown on the diagram curve in the associated picture. Also, the front cover reminds you that you should register on ASUS's member site as a VIP member. Inside the box, there are loads of equipment: six SATA cables, one SATA power cable, one IDE and FDD cable, a bracket with a couple of USB and a single FireWire port, a PSU-mountable fan for a water-cooling system, the driver disc, the manual, and finally, the SLI bridge connector.



Upon extraction of the mobo, we first had a look at the massive cooling system, one with flawless looks. By the way, the board is covered by copper cooling bodies all connected by a single heatpipe, whereas the only separately cooled part is a part of the voltage unit above the CPU socket. In the upper left corner, right next to the voltage unit, an 8-pin EPS 12V connector is situated, which has become quite a trend lately. The voltage unit is 8-phase, as stated on the box, and it gives a very stable voltage while staying cool most of the time. On the right edge of the PCB, in the best possible place, one finds the 24-pin power connector, with the FDD connector located right above it, and the IDE connector following.



Three USB connectors are located on the standard lower spot, as well as the FireWire connector. One USB connector is, however, located on the top of the board, which will certainly be greeted by owners of enclosures with the front panel on top of the case, as there will be less cabling required. The processor socket has enough room around itself to provide easy installation of even the biggest coolers. The six SATA connectors are rotated by 90°, which makes the cabling procedure easier for meticulous users. The back panel is very neat and contains two PS/2 ports (strangely enough, as ASUS cut this number down to 1 on all their motherboards long ago), a coaxial and optical I/O, four USB ports, LAN connectors, audio card connectors and the red-dyed FireWire and eSATA connectors.



The soft part of the motherboard – BIOS, is, again, classic ASUS, which means that it is very neat and descriptive. As far as overclocking is concerned, we remind you that nForce-based motherboards enable clocks for memory and FSB bus, which is present here as well. The FSB can be set in the 533-3000 MHz range (QPB, which is equivalent to 133-750 MHz). Memory settings allow for values of 400-2600 MHz, of which the latter is unattainable, of course. No components will be lacking in voltage either – the processor has the 0.83125-1.9 V range at disposal, with steps of 0.00625 V. Memory was also grewardedh with a large range, 1.85-3.11 V in 0.02 V steps. The CPU VTT can be set in between 1.2 V and 1.55 V in just the same step values, and the NB chip goes from 1.2 V to 2.46 V, again in the same step values. The HT bus has a 1.2-2 V range, and finally, the SB chip with its 1.35-1.85 V range.



We must note that there are two different chipset revisions, the newer one being much cooler and more stable. We tried both of them and were frankly surprised by the differences. While the first revision (probably the initial “press” samples not to be found on the market) was very hot and almost non-overclockable, the second revision was working just as we expected, so both the board and the chipset left a most positive impression on us, as it pushed our sample quad-core processor to 3 GHz and remained quite cool. With all of the advanced technology it brings us, we mark it “approved”, no doubts about that.

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