Nvidia describes Intel chipset shortage as good for it, and AMD

Nvidia describes Intel chipset shortage as good for it, and AMD
HOLDERS OF NVIDIA shares saw the price rise by around $1.50 during today, as the graphics company cheered its own progress. As we write, the share price of the tick, NVDA, is not far off $30.

We decided to listen to the conference call, where the word "halo" kept re-occurring, something that lends an air of spirituality to the other Santa Clara firm.

An Intel chipset shortage was good for Nvidia because that shortage benefited AMD, and therefore Nvidia, the CEO Jen-Hsen Huang, said.

He said: "Nvidia is more focused on AMD chipsets than any partner in the market. A shortage gives extra opportunities for AMD. A positive for AMD is a positive for Nvidia, said Jen-Hsen."

The chief NVDA beancounter had around three acronyms per sentence, which makes things less clear than they might be. The really old people out there might remember how Victorian books and newspapers were verbose. Around 1982, marketing language started to flood the English language and that stuff doesn't half obscure clarity.

Back ending loading and DSI mean nothing to most people. 2,353 people work for Nvidia and it's hiring in "engineering international". [Engineers abroad, Ed.]

Xbox won't ship in Q3 so Nvidia will need to sell more other stuff. Q4 will be the time when the "receivables" [cash in, Ed.] are "received" [banked, Ed.].

It expects to grow the third quarter by fifteen per cent. Gross margins will probably be about 38 per cent in its third quarter. "It's a complex equation," said the chief beancounter.

Jen-Hsen Huang said his firm will "ramp" the 7800 GT and expects its technology to create a "halo effect". It will gain share in the mainstream market. He said Nvidia has a superior PCI Express product.

He said the Nforce MCP with an integrated MPU is its first in over two years. Nvidia expects this to be a "growth driver" [Will make money, Ed.]. "WMP" is ramping". The Sony business with PS/3 and PS/3 consoles could extend over ten years.

The PS/3 royalty streams "will be significant" [A lot, Ed.] and that will represent $70 million of growth quarter on quarter and more "going forward" [In the future, Ed.].

Microsoft's Windows "Vista" will give Nvidia more chances to make even more money, so PC chipsets will be gung ho.

"Rich content" [sound and vision, Ed.] will continue to grow. Consumer electronics will be good for Nvidia "going forward" [in the future, Ed.]. Every single games console will include Shader Model 3.0. Nvidia customers tend to buy late in the quarter. The channel is defined by what is it buying and are already ready to order products. The market is "inventory proof" and "back to school" is going nicely.

Nvidia has two 90 nanometre products in production and just about every other product behind them will be 90 nanometres. The early "ramps" [production, Ed.] are hard to say right now.

Nvidia spent $29 million in the quarter on memory and that number is decreasing. Jen-Hsen Huang said Nvidia tries to bundle as little memory as it can and carefully allocate GPUs [graphics chips, Ed.].

The majority of AMD's high end offerings are based on PCI Express so it's inevitable Intel platforms will connect, said Jen-Hsen. When DDR-2 becomes more cost effective and available, that will shift the market to PCIe. PCIe will be around 50 per cent by the end of the year, the CEO and president said.

Nvidia's competitor, ATI, without Shader Model 3.0, looks a little old, said Jen-Hsen. His information is that ATI started to slow down the builds of its chips. He said he was speculating on this, and so his guess was it build less chips as a result and it will take a little longer for ATI's inventory to sell out
Originalmente aparecido en http://www.theinquirer.net/