Nvidia Provides New SLI Capability

Nvidia recently announced the decision to authorize support for its SLI technology specifically on Intel X58 motherboards and will provide “approval keys that will be integrated into the system BIOS for boards that pass certification.” The move was expected by many and will surely please many of the company’s clients.

The new SLI capability offer will not be released for free, as manufacturers will have to receive Nvidia’s certification. The process will cost about $30.

Tom Petersen, Director of Technical Marketing for Nvidia’s chipset business, explained that the cross-licensing agreement with Intel will feature a Quick Path Interface license, which will help the company to develop chipsets for Intel’s newest processors. “We chose to focus our engineering resources on developing DMI chipsets [for mainstream Lynnfield and Havendale processors] at this time,” explained Mr. Petersen.

Still the company will continue the advertising campaign for its nForce 200 chip designed for more advanced systems. Peterson commented on the offer, saying that the nForce 200 "is basically an SLI chip that acts like a PCI Express bridge. That's been the only solution and that's been a very high-end solution. We'll continue to offer this."

Nvidia is a multinational corporation, specialized in manufacturing graphics-processor technologies for a series of mobile devices, workstations and desktop computers. Over the years, it managed to become one of the major suppliers of ICs needed for personal computers and game consoles. Some of its most popular products include the GeForce series for gaming, the Quadro series and the nForce series.