Techweb bericht dat nVidia werkt aan eigen audio core. Of het ontwerp wordt toegepast in een standalone chip of geïntegreerde audio/video chipset is nog niet zeker, maar de laatste optie lijkt waarschijnlijk. nVidia zou daarmee terugkeren naar haar oorsprong, toen het bekend werd met de NV1. Deze geïntegreerde audio/video chipset werd gebruikt in de weinig succesvolle Diamond Edge 3D (thanks eenTurk voor de tip):
By designing audio products, the company can continue expanding beyond the PC and follow a path it struck through a recent development deal with workstation maker Silicon Graphics. Executives this week said they plan to bring an audio core to market late this year or early in 2001, but have not yet committed to either a discrete audio chip or an integrated graphics/audio IC.[...] "An integrated multimedia subsystem is going to happen, combining things like 2-D, 3-D, and audio," Hara said. "The key is what form factor we bring it out in."
[...] According to analysts and industry executives, an audio core now requires only about 40,000 to 80,000 gates, less than a third of a low-end graphics chip. Analyst Jon Peddie of Jon Peddie Associates, Tiburon, Calif., said on a leading-edge 3-D chip, the audio core would probably fit under the copyright symbol in the logo. Moreover, audio standards, save for perhaps LucasFilm's THX, are used and can be duplicated in PC and set-top products.