NVIDIA 2011 Annual Report Download - page 6

GPU Business
Our GPU business is comprised primarily of our GeForce discrete and chipset products that support desktop and notebook PCs, plus memory products. Our
GPU business is focused on Microsoft Windows and Apple PC platforms. GeForce GPUs power PCs made by or distributed by most PC OEMs in the world
for desktop PCs, notebook PCs, and PCs loaded with Windows Media Center and other media extenders such as the Apple TV. GPUs enhance the user
experience for playing video games, editing photos, viewing and editing videos and high-definition, or HD, movies.
We believe we are in an era where visual computing is becoming increasingly important to consumers and other end users of our products. Our strategy is
to promote the GeForce brand as one of the most important processors due to its technology leadership, increasing programmability, and impressive content
experience it enables. In fiscal year 2011, our strategy was to extend our architectural and technology advantage with our GeForce GPUs.
During fiscal year 2011, we took the computational capabilities of our GPUs to a new level with the launch of our Fermi architecture. Fermi GPUs are
designed to excel at tessellation, the key feature of DirectX 11, and to allow game developers to increase the level of physics realism via our PhysX API. Our
flagship product for the desktop, the GeForce GTX 480, was followed by a complete line-up of 400-series GPUs. Later in the year, we refreshed them with
our 500-series GPUs, which significantly increased the performance of the products they replaced while fitting into similar power envelopes. We also
launched 400M- and 500M- series GPUs for notebooks, along with our Optimus technology, which switches invisibly between discrete GPU and integrated
graphics controller depending on the user’s activities. By doing so, NVIDIA Optimus provides notebook users with the battery life of integrated graphics, but
with the gaming performance of a discrete graphics processor. PC manufacturers also are expected to launch hundreds of new PCs that use these new
GeForce GPUs paired with Intel’s Sandy Bridge CPUs.
During fiscal year 2011, we also announced our plans to develop a custom central processing unit, or CPU, that will use the ARM instruction set.
These CPU cores will be integrated into future generation GPUs for PCs, servers, and supercomputers. These CPU cores will be integrated into future
generation processors for PCs, servers, and supercomputers. PC manufacturers also are expected to launch hundreds of new PCs that use NVIDIA® GeForce
GPUs paired with the new generation of Intel Corporation’s Sandy Bridge CPUs.
During fiscal year 2011, we also began shipments of the GeForce 320M chipset to Apple for incorporation into their latest 13-inch MacBook
notebooks. The 320M delivers up to an 80% performance increase over the previous GeForce 9400M GPU.
Professional Solutions Business
Our PSB is comprised of our Quadro professional workstation products and other professional graphics products, including our Tesla high-performance
computing products. Our Quadro brand products are designed to deliver the highest possible level of graphics performance and application compatibility for
the professional industry. Quadro products are recognized by many as the standard for professional graphics solutions needed to solve many of the world’s
most complex visual computing challenges in the manufacturing, entertainment, medical, science, and aerospace industries. Quadro products are fully
certified by several software developers for professional workstation applications and are designed to deliver the graphics performance and precision required
by professional applications.
There has been in recent years an increasing level of global adoption of the computer-aided design approach of product creation. We have achieved a
leading position in the professional graphics category by providing innovative GPU technology, software, and tools that integrate the capabilities of our GPU
with a broad array of visualization products.
During fiscal year 2011, our Quadro business benefitted from the strength of our Fermi architecture with the launch of the Quadro 2000 midrange GPU
and the Quadro 600 entry-level GPU. These professional graphics solutions put the computational and visualization benefits of our Fermi architecture within
reach of all engineers, designers and animators, with the Quadro 2000 delivering significantly higher performance compared to leading computer aided
design, or CAD applications and the Quadro 600 positioned at a competitive price/performance point.
During fiscal year 2011, demand for our workstation products continued to recover, fueled by demand from enterprise customers and new growth
markets like video editing. During SIGRRAPH 2010, we introduced new Quadro GPU products based on our Fermi architecture and 3D Vision Pro, a new
3D stereoscopic solution that empowers engineers, designers, architects and computational chemists who work with complex 3D designs to experience a rich,
reliable 3D viewing for large scale visualization environments. The new Quadro GPUs deliver performance that is up to five times faster for 3D applications
and up to eight times faster for computational simulation than our previous Quadro generation products. We also announced that a range of NVIDIA Quadro
professional graphics solutions are certified by Adobe Systems Incorporated for Adobe Creative Suite 5 software, which provides real-time video editing and
effects processing of Adobe Premiere Pro CS5.
Our Tesla supercomputing business continued to make progress with key project wins not only in our core market segments, but also with traction in a
number of new focus areas. A notable achievement this fiscal year was the unveiling of the Tianhe-1A supercomputer at HPC 2010 China. The system uses
more than 7,000 Tesla M2050 GPUs, is three-times more energy efficient than an equivalent CPU-only system and takes up half as much floor space.
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