NVIDIA's Road Ahead: Ion, Tegra and The Future of The Company

by Marco Chiappetta — Friday, August 28, 2009, 11:23 AM EDT

NVIDIA has built its brand and reputation as a GPU designer since the company was founded in 1993, but recent comments by the company have implied that it believes platforms like Tegra and ION will be key revenue generators in the future. We've previously discussed NVIDIA's ongoing emphasis on the GPU as a massively parallel processor capable of handling workloads and programs far outside the realm of video games, but to date, reviewers and analysts alike have treated Tegra as more of a side project than a future core competency.

Given how difficult the last twelve months have been for NVIDIA, it's easy to wonder if the company's decision to focus on Tegra is correct. To date, the GPU designer has spent some $600 million on Tegra development, with nary a cent in revenue to show for it just yet. Viewed strictly in the short term, it might seem that NVIDIA has mistakenly pumped a good deal of cash into a niche product at a time when it could ill afford to do so. Longer-term, however, there's good reason to think that Tegra really could grow to become a revenue pillar...

NVIDIA's Road Ahead: Ion, Tegra and The Future of The Company

The two core components of NVIDIA's mobile strategy: ION and Tegra

Tags: Nvidia, AMD, Intel, GeForce, Cuda, Westmere, tegra, Future

Marco Chiappetta

Marco's interest in computing and technology dates all the way back to his early childhood. Even before being exposed to the Commodore P.E.T. and later the Commodore 64 in the early ‘80s, he was interested in electricity and electronics, and he still has the modded AFX cars and shop-worn soldering irons to prove it. Once he got his hands on his own Commodore 64, however, computing became Marco's passion. Throughout his academic and professional lives, Marco has worked with virtually every major platform from the TRS-80 and Amiga, to today's high end, multi-core servers. Over the years, he has worked in many fields related to technology and computing, including system design, assembly and sales, professional quality assurance testing, and technical writing. In addition to being the Managing Editor here at HotHardware for close to 15 years, Marco is also a freelance writer whose work has been published in a number of PC and technology related print publications and he is a regular fixture on HotHardware’s own Two and a Half Geeks webcast. - Contact: marco(at)hothardware(dot)com