NVIDIA Corporation

Description

NVIDIA Corporation is a US-based technology giant that specializes in high-performance computing, graphics processing unit (GPU) and deep learning ignited modern artificial intelligence (AI).

NVIDIA processors cater to four target markets: Datacenter, Gaming, Professional Visualization and Automotive. Founded by Chris Malachowsky, Jensen Huang and Curtis Priem in 1993, NVIDIA has its headquarters in Santa Clara, California.

In 1994, the company signed its first strategic partnership with the SGS-Thomson Microelectronics to manufacture a single-chip graphical-user interface (GUI) accelerator. The company invented GPU in 1999, which later led to the emergence of visual computing to experience real-time programmable shading.

NVIDIA reinvents computer graphics with Turing architecture. NVIDIA GeForce, with applications such as GeForce GTX GPUs and the GeForce Experience, reportedly accounts for nearly 200 million gamers worldwide. Its products include AI supercomputer NVIDIA DGX, NVIDIA DRIVE, an AI car computing platform, cloud gaming service under GeForce NOW.

The company’s list of audience includes scientists, designers, artists, and gamers. Its GPU computing is said to have played a role in two discoveries that won the Nobel Prize in 2017.

NVIDIA operates under two segments: Tegra Processor and GPUs. The GPU products include Tesla and DGX, which are meant for AI data scientists and researchers. GeForce drivers are for high-quality gaming experience, while Quadro is used for designing and GRID for cloud-based visual computing users.

The company has integrated Tegra Processors with high-performance computer into a single chip. It has incorporated the GPUs and multi-core central processing units to boost supercomputing for mobile gaming, entertainment devices, specialized robots, drones and cars.

NVIDIA’s DGX-2 is said to be the first single server capable of delivering two petaflops of computing speed, which can further replace 300 dual CPU servers found in data centres.

In 2003, the company had acquired Media Q. More recently, in 2020, it bought Mellanox, an Israeli-American MNC that provides computer networking products based on Ethernet and InfiniBand technology. With a target of 1,000X speed-up by 2025, the company is exploring the future of GPU computing.