Graphics chipmaker NVIDIA Tuesday took the wraps off two new core logic chips designed for the desktop, tweaked for gaming.
The newest members of its NVIDIA nForce platform processor family-the NVIDIA nForce2 Ultra 400 and NVIDIA nForce2 400 are part of the Santa Clara-based company’s popular product line.
The processors use NVIDIA’s Unified Driver Architecture (UDA — or what the company describes as “one driver for all platforms” design philosophy. The company said upgrading to the new nForce2 processors is streamlined because of a single “gold disk” system-level driver that is backward and forward compatible with all nForce- based products.
The two processors are also optimized and validated for the new AMD Athlon XP processor 3200+, also released today.
NVIDIA said motherboards featuring the NVIDIA nForce2 Ultra 400 and NVIDIA nForce2 400 platform processors are currently available from channel distributors, retail outlets and motherboard manufacturers.
First released last July, NVIDIA saw sales of the nForce2 product line grow 80 percent in the first three months of this year over the October-December 2002 time frame.
“In less than a year, sales of NVIDIA nForce2 platform processors have grown significantly month to month,” Drew Henry, senior director of platform business at NVIDIA said in a statement. “In addition to NVIDIA nForce2 Ultra 400, which continues to be the performance leader, NVIDIA nForce2 400 now extends our NVIDIA nForce2 brand and technology into the price-sensitive mainstream PC market, and positions NVIDIA as the preeminent provider of core-logic solutions for the entire AMD processor-based, desktop PC market.”
The nForce2 news comes on the heels of NVIDIA’s marquee launch this week of its high-end, stand-alone graphics processor, the GeForce FX 5900 Ultra. Both are on display at this week’s Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles.
