NVIDIA Analyst Day: Jen-sun Goes to the Mat With Intel
by Derek Wilson on April 11, 2008 12:00 AM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
The Tenderloin and the Two Buck Chuck
As for the idea of Intel integrating a GPU onto their CPUs, NVIDIA painted a rather distasteful picture of mixing together something excellent with something incredibly sub par. The first analogy Jen-sun pulled out was one of someone's kid topping off a decanted bottle of '63 Chateau Latour with an '07 Robert Mondavi. The idea of Intel combining their very well engineered CPUs with their barely passable integrated graphics is an aberration to be avoided at all costs.
This isn't to say that CPUs and GPUs shouldn't work together, but that Intel should stick to what they know. In fact, NVIDIA heavily pushed the idea of heterogeneous computing but decried the idea that taking a system block diagram and drawing a box around the CPU and GPU would actually do anything useful. NVIDIA definitely wants their hardware to be the manycore floating point compute hardware paired with Intel's multicore general purpose processors, and they try to paint a picture of a world where both are critical to any given system.
Certainly CPUs and GPUs are currently needed and unless Intel can really pull out some magic that won't change for the foreseeable future. NVIDIA made a big deal of relating this pair to Star Trek technology: you need both your impulse engines and your warp drive. Neither is useful for the task the other is designed for: short range navigation can't be done with a warp drive, and impulse engines aren't suitable for long distance travel requiring faster than light speeds. The bottom line is that hardware should be designed and used for the task that best suits it.
Again, this says nothing about what happens if Intel brings to market a competitive manycore floating point solution. Maybe the hardware they design will be up to the task, and maybe it won't. But Jen-sun really wanted to get across the idea that the current incarnation of the CPU and the current incarnation of Intel's GPU technology are nowhere near sufficient to handle anything like what NVIDIA's hardware enables.
Coming back the argument that it's best to stick with what you know, Jen-sun stated his belief that "you can't be a great company by doing everything for everybody;" that Intel hardware works fine for running operating systems and for applications where visualization is not a factor at all: what NVIDIA calls Enterprise Computing (in contrast to Visual Computing). Going further, he postulates that "the best way for Google to compete against Microsoft is not to build another operating system."
Making another back handed comment about Intel, Jen-sun later defended their recent loss in market share for low end notebook graphics. He held that the market just wasn't worth competing in for them and that other companies offered solutions that fit the market better. Defending NVIDIA's lack of competition in this market segment, he doesn't say to himself: "Jen-sun, when you wake up in the morning, go steal somebody else's business," but rather "we wake up in the morning saying, 'ya know, we could change the world.'"
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panfist - Friday, April 11, 2008 - link
There is a special place in my heart and in gaming history for John Carmack, but I don't think he's necessarily the one to trust when it comes to forecasting the industry anymore.Doom3 the single player game was disappointing, and the engine never really had a big hit game, either.
Now maybe if Valve or Epic weighed in with similar comments...
StormEffect - Friday, April 11, 2008 - link
It was called Prey and it was fairly successful.Sunrise089 - Friday, April 11, 2008 - link
In addition, while there wasn't one crazy breakthrough hit (and on the PC, what really is these days?), I would guess that in total installed copies of Doom 3, Quake 4, Prey, and Quake Wars is pretty competitive to some of the other contemporary engines.Conroe - Friday, April 11, 2008 - link
If Intel could integrate a GPU that actually could run games what do you think would happen to nvidia? He sounds a little frightened to me.jtleon - Friday, April 11, 2008 - link
Why is it in Jen-sun's best interest to draw attention to Intel's failed IGP?Consider the end user experience - I tried using Intel's IGP - and became so horribly frustrated that I abandoned the IGP altogether in disgust! As a competitor, Jen-sun cannot buy such a powerful motivator to drive customers to nVidia (or ATI), right?
Jen-sun should be praising Intel for their IGP, and encourage them to continue the "good" work for nVidia! Don't ridicule Intel - Don't dare them to beat you.
Jen-sun mis-managed this Financial Meeting and cannot retract his indignation - He has challenged Intel to a Dual, and he cannot win!
Regards,
jtleon
Griswold - Friday, April 11, 2008 - link
"He has challenged Intel to a Dual, and he cannot win!"A dual what? Dual-core maybe?
Its spelled d-u-e-l.
jtleon - Friday, April 11, 2008 - link
Thanks Griswold...saw the mistake as I hit the Post button - unfortunately this site does not offer an "edit" after the fact!poohbear - Friday, April 11, 2008 - link
thanks for pointing out the obvious to all of us w/ a grade 3 and above education Griswold. Now, do us all a favor and go "fuk" yourself, and dont tell me how to spell fuk on the internet. Thank you very much.jtleon - Friday, April 11, 2008 - link
No doubt Jen-sun is very afraid. Intel could buy his entire engineering team - should they so choose.However, such fear is a vital ingredient (always has been) to generate true innovation. We should be worried if Jen-sun is not afraid.
Regards,
jtleon
Lonyo - Friday, April 11, 2008 - link
Intel are arguably a long term company.It may be that no one can see anything happening in the near future, but give it time and we will see things shifting I am sure.
They are in it for the long haul, but they also want to show they are making short term steps to get there.
The Atom is by no means a finished platform, nor does it operate where Intel are aiming for, but it's a start on the road.