Tag Archives: nvidia

GPPPU?

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In relation to what I wrote yesterday, I would like to mention my idea of what Nvidia could be working on with their purchase of AGEIA in February.

I call it the GPPPU: General-purpose computing on physics processing units.

In other words, a physics processing unit that can also handle most of the applications that are usually dedicated to GPUs. It will be akin to the GPGPU, which uses “a GPU, which typically handles computation only for computer graphics, to perform computation in applications traditionally handled by the CPU”.

In the GPGPU arena, Nvidia is already competing with ATI (now owned by AMD); it is also in a war of words with Intel over the fate of the traditional CPU.

But if Nvidia is working on making a GPU that can do a CPU’s job, then how will they have the time and money to make a PPU that can do a GPU’s job?

Who will buy Bigfoot Networks?

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I’m wondering if Intel or AMD will buy Bigfoot Networks, the company that made the Killer NIC.

The company was founded back in 2004, and the Killer NIC has received quite a bit of fanfare from such corporate allies as NewEgg and WidowPC.

Just like fellow similar fabless semiconductor startup AGEIA (which was purchased by NVIDIA in February this year, which means that NVIDIA’s future GPUs will incorporate the much-touted PhysX PPU’s technology), Bigfoot also made some fluff pieces of its own for the public:

So here’s the question: do any of the major semiconductor manufacturers (Intel, Nvidia, AMD/ATI) see in Bigfoot Networks a potential cash cow replete with tasty intellectual property goodness? Do the CPU and GPU manufacturers feel that the Killer NIC’s network processing capabilities can be fused into a GPU, GPGPU or CPU?

Well, we can at least exclude Intel from this query: they bought network card manufacturer Xircom in 2001. Xircom was itself one of the first processor manufacturers to focus on networking accessories for the growing notebook computer market.

So now that leaves us with AMD/ATI and Nvidia. The two companies may be interested in Bigfoot’s direct marketing to the PC gaming demographic, which is also the target for AMD/ATI’s and Nvidia’s GPUs.

I only ask about a potential buyout of Bigfoot because I seriously doubt that Bigfoot Networks will last much longer as a startup. Startups tend to either fizzle-out/deadpool or be bought out by another, larger public corporation, or so goes the popular wisdom of this generation.