NVIDIA to buy core-logic maker ULi

[Nick]

In a move that has taken pretty much everyone in the IT industry by surprise, NVIDIA has announced that it is to buy ULi Electronics - the creator of some of the most innovative core-logic technology found on today's motherboards.

NVIDIA Corporation (Nasdaq: NVDA), the worldwide leader in programmable graphics processor technologies, today announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire ULi Electronics Inc. (ULi), one of the PC industry’s most highly-regarded core-logic developers. Headquartered in Taipei, ULi also has offices in Hsinchu; Shanghai; Shenzhen; and San Jose, California.

ULi is recognized for its innovative core logic technology as well as other multimedia and embedded products. The acquisition represents NVIDIA’s ongoing investment in its platform solution strategy, which leverages the acclaimed NVIDIA nForce media and communications processors (MCPs) and NVIDIA GeForce and NVIDIA Quadro graphics processing units (GPUs). Additionally, the acquisition is expected to strengthen the company’s sales, marketing, and customer engineering presence in Taiwan and China.

Above quote from NVIDIA's press release.

But what does this mean?

Check the HEXUS.net: Headline for more details!

[Jonny M]

At least 2 poor chipset manufacturers are now just 1, less stuff to avoid.

[kalniel]

Very good move by NVidia. ULI were just building up a reputation for innovative products that even threatened NVidia's own chipsets.

ATI are probably kicking themselves, and ULI shareholders might be wishing they'd held out for some competition between the two.

[Nick]

The article has been updated with views from interested parties in the industry... Check what ATI have to say!

[kalniel]

“ATI have a really strong platform and product road map for the future. ATI’s success does not rely on third party technology or expertise”

Of course.. it's not like motherboard manufacturers have had to resort to using third party chips on ATI boards or anything....

http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2617

Oops.. is that a ULI chip on the south bridge?

But wait! ULI are now NVidia.. so crossfire boards do best with NVidia chips!

(yes, this is slightly tongue in cheek - there is a new ATI chip that will hopefully reduce the need for the ULI chip)

[DavidM]

It would be quite entertaining if ATI occasionally still used ULi chipsets.

But I seem to recall examples of Intel chips being used on AMD motherboards (or vice versa) in the (distant) past...

[directhex]

there are a lot of ati-uli turion64 laptops about, which cause no end of trouble for linux users (uli chipsets are completely broken under linux)

[Syn]

The reason is simple ULi was saving ATi's ass by providing a decent Southbridge to go with thier ATi's northbridge, we all heard how ATi's SB is lacking on USB and has no SATA2.

It is very logical that nVidia would buy the company that was saving ATi's current chipsets from being a total flop. Its not suprising its pure logic. Its just another move to make things harder on ATi to gain any more market share.

Now nVidia will have all ULi's tech and if they choose they can continue selling ULi chipsets and make money from the sales of ATi motherboards.

[merlin2001]

market reaction is pretty flat. Nvidia opened at $37 and trading around the same at time of writing,
..still - i see value in the acq. - $52 Millions not much and gives NVDA access to a fairly innovative product line-up and potentially skills that they will be able to leverage with their own in-house teams to produce good chipsets in the future. assuming they manage the intergration well.

[2r4z0r2]

cmon...the usb performance and sata2 is still a non-factor in the motherboards...when it will be important, ati will have it on on par with the others...oh wait...with the otheR

[Nick]

I agree, the USB performance just doesn't matter in real world terms... Unless someone can tell me of an application where you'd NEED full USB speeds AND notice the difference?

(And we're talking something like 19 Mb a second, faster than a DVD stream...)

[Syn]

I agree, the USB performance just doesn't matter in real world terms... Unless someone can tell me of an application where you'd NEED full USB speeds AND notice the difference?

(And we're talking something like 19 Mb a second, faster than a DVD stream...)

yea i feel the same way but review sites are giving it alot of stick for it, i dont really care much as long as it works fine. Which is why i wanted to buy Sapphire PI mobo but it just out of my budget at the moment i need the money for X1800XT and a decent AMD X2.

[TheAnimus]

there are a lot of ati-uli turion64 laptops about, which cause no end of trouble for linux users (uli chipsets are completely broken under linux)

damn software engineers always get this the wrong way round, linux is completely broken under some uli chipsets. Still there damn good imo espuesually when you look at price, just a pitty about linux's hardware management, if only they had some kind of generic layer, that provided, some generalisation and abstraction. That would be useful for this sort of thing!

But seriously good move by nVidia, company was growing, even if its not a 'partner' move, its a good aquisition.

[kalniel]

I agree, the USB performance just doesn't matter in real world terms... Unless someone can tell me of an application where you'd NEED full USB speeds AND notice the difference?

(And we're talking something like 19 Mb a second, faster than a DVD stream...)

Quite a agree, but what's more important - real world terms, or marketability?

Sata2 I can especially see as something PC world et al would like to stick on their adverts for systems.

NVidia are quite happy to bang on about any differing features regardless of how useful they are. We might not be swayed, but how much of the market do we represent?