NVIDIA has temporarily halted development of its Nforce chipset line, as the legal issues between the graphics company and Intel continue to turn nasty.
The graphics company plans to "postpone further chipset investments," possibly until a licensing disupte with Intel is settled. Specifically, Intel claims NVIDIA doesn't have the right to make new chipsets that work with newer Intel CPUs, though NVIDIA says that it does -- under existing licensing agreements -- but will halt production into 2010, at the earliest.
"Because of Intel's improper claims to customers and the market that we aren't licensed to the new DMI bus and its unfair business tactics, it is effectively impossible for us to market chipsets for future CPUs," NVIDIA said in a press statement. ""So, until we resolve this matter in court next year, we'll postpone further chipset investments for Intel DMI CPUs."
In the mean time, NVIDIA will make products for older Intel CPUs, along with the company's graphic chips.
In Intel's defense, the company said the current issue has built up for more than two years, and legal action to resolve the problem has been inevitable. NVIDIA may be feeling the pressure as Intel continues to enter the graphics market, which has cut into the company's bottom line.
"We have a dispute with them over a license," Intel spokesperson Chuck Mulloy said in a release. "We're still trying to resolve that dispute. Beyond that, we've got nothing to say."
Even with increased pressure from Intel, NVIDIA remains the industry leader in graphic chips, but it will be interesting to see how the company handles pressure from Intel, ATI, and others as the tech industry continues to rebound.
Source: DailyTech
