NVIDIA says trying to design a GPU for the console wasn't worth the cost

Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD) has quietly dominated the market for commodity graphics chips and CPUs for console gaming systems, and the latest generation of consoles look to be no exception. Sony Corp.'s (TYO:6758) PS4, to launch this holiday season, will feature an AMD GPU and CPU. And there's an AMD 550 MHz Radeon "Latte" GPU aboard Nintendo Comp., Ltd.'s (TYO:7974) popular Wii U.

So how does NVIDIA Corp. (NVDA), AMD's chief rival in the PC graphics market feel about AMD's dominance of the increasingly PC-like consoles? Not too bad, apparently.

NVIDIA's Senior Vice President of content and tecnology told Gamespot in a recent interview that his company is essentially letting AMD win. While he's convinced his firm could be AMD if it tried, he says it just isn't worth it, remarking:

I'm sure there was a negotiation that went on and we came to the conclusion that we didn't want to do the business at the price those guys were willing to pay. Having been through the original Xbox and PS3, we understand the economics of the development and the trade-offs.

If we say, did a console, what other piece of our business would we put on hold to chase after that? In the end, you only have so many engineers and so much capability, and if you're going to go off and do chips for Sony or Microsoft, then that's probably a chip that you're not doing for some other portion of your business.

That statement seems a bit odd -- after all, hegemony of consoles could be a ticket for a financially struggling AMD to effectively sell tens, if not hundreds of millions of chips.


But NVIDIA's focus is more directed on the mobile market, where it's looking to leverage pared down versions of its GeForce GPUs beside ARM CPU cores. NVIDIA has its work cut out for it in that market; it largely lost the last round to Qualcomm, Inc. (QCOM) due to its chips being too power-hungry.

NVIDIA is looking to change later this year with the refresh of Tegra 4 that will include an on-die LTE modem. Between Tegra and the development of traditional PC GPUs, NVIDIA sounds content to let AMD freely dominate the console market -- or so it says.

Source: GameSpot



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Google also agreed to destroy all of this data collected in the U.S.

Google is finally settling a three-year investigation this week into a Wi-Fi incident that occurred when compiling data for its mapping service.

Google's Street View mapping cars had accidentally collected personal data, such as home wireless network passwords, between 2008 and 2010. The cars were out collecting images and data for the Street View mapping system in Google Maps, and were using an experimental computer code in the cars' software while doing so. This led to the accidental collection of personal data

The settlement orders that Google split $7 million among 38 states in the U.S. and the District of Columbia, which were involved in the incident. Google also agreed to destroy all of this data collected in the U.S. (it's still working things out with European countries, where the same incident occurred).

Google will also deploy employee education programs that fill them in about user privacy, and will also launch a campaign about protecting information on wireless networks.

While Google has now been punished for its incident, some are not happy with the amount of the fine. For instance, Steve Pociask, the president of the American Consumer Institute, said that $7 million is nothing to a huge tech company like Google and likely won't ward off any further intrusions of privacy.

Google had a revenue of $50.2 billion in 2012 and $10.7 billion in net income.

Source: Reuters



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Notably, more than half of gamers who DO pick the embattled OS downgrade within weeks

Arguably the most important, but relatively underdiscussed single story at the 2013 Consumer Electronics Show can be expressed in a single word -- "solidarity". Whether it was Intel Corp. (INTC) pushing customers towards touch-friendly devices or companies like Hewlett-Packard Comp. (HPQ) and Lenovo Group, Ltd. (HKG:0992) pushing Windows 8 hybrids/laptop designs, everyone was standing firmly behind Microsoft Corp.'s (MSFT) embattled Windows 8 operating system.

With past releases Microsoft was blasted for not being innovative enough compared to Linux and OS X, in terms of user interface design. Windows 8 flips the tables innovating wildly -- well beyond what Linux distro makers or Apple, Inc. (AAPL) have dared do. And now the equation has flipped: Microsoft finds itself under attack for innovating too much.

Whether its DailyTech's readers or online critics, it's important to recognize that much of the criticism is coming from the enthusiast sphere. Average consumers -- who generally gravitate towards bright, colorful, touchable devices like moths to a light -- tend to react more kindly to Windows 8 when exposed, at least in my anecdotal experience.

But the numbers are troubling. Despite Microsoft playing an interesting licensing sales game selling a deluge of licenses to OEMs at a rate that would indicate Windows 8 to be outselling Windows 7, the usage numbers indicate that OEMs are only moving a fraction of those licenses. Windows 8 is only drawing around a tenth of the internet traffic Windows 7 did at a similar point in the adoption cycle; in fact Windows 8 trails Windows Vista in internet traffic.

For obvious reasons I won't name the particular company I heard this from, but during a discussion this week with a company who makes enthusiast laptops and desktops for gamers I heard a somewhat interesting and startling statistic that drives home just how much Windows 8 is indeed struggling.

According to the the source:

It's really interesting... what we see is more people selecting Windows 7 [than Windows 8]... because we offer both side by side. And we actually see more people switching [back] from Windows 8 [to Windows 7] which is interesting.

The source said that over half of the purchasers of enthusiast PCs who do take the Windows 8 drive tend to bail within a couple weeks.

Now bear in mind a couple of qualifiers:

Not all the enthusiasts desktops/laptops sold by this company come with touch monitors (hence limiting the Windows 8 UI).
The target audience is enthusiasts, who as mentioned tend to "hate on 8".

Still, the idea that 3 out of every 4 buyers of new machines are rejecting Windows 8 should be a startling one for Microsoft. Microsoft should be very thankful for the solidarity shown by its partners at CES 2013, in the face of that kind of sales trend.


Less than half oif enthusiasts give Windows 8 a try, and over half that do downgrade to
Windows 7 quickly, according to an industry source. [Image Source: Reuters]


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