NVidia to Acquire MediaQ

Posted By: Ryan Tuesday, August 5, 2003 1:00:17 AM

NVidia today announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire MediaQ, the a provider of graphics and multimedia technology for wireless mobile devices. Media Q is a member of the Palm OS Ready program and had recently announced a new multimedia centric ARM processor.

Under the terms of the agreement, NVIDIA will acquire privately-held MediaQ for $70 million paid predominantly in cash. The acquisition, which is expected to be completed in the third quarter of NVIDIA's fiscal year 2004, has been approved by the board of directors of each company and is subject to the satisfaction of the typical regulatory requirements.

Founded in 1997, MediaQ's core technologies enhance visual display capabilities, improve connectivity, and minimize chip and system-level power consumption. The company enhances its semiconductor product offerings with a comprehensive set of software, including drivers for major mobile operating systems and APIs that improve OEM time to market. Key market segments are 3G and 2.5G handsets, PDAs, LCD displays, and other mobile devices.

MediaQ is a member of the Palm OS Ready Program, which is targeted at providing Palm OS licensees with silicon solutions ready to run the Palm OS. The company's chips have also been used in some Sony Clie models. The company announced in April that it would create a new processor for handhelds. MediaQ will implement the ARM922T core in a low-power system-on-chip design.

“This acquisition supports NVIDIA’s strategy of extending our platform reach and accelerates our entry into the wireless mobile markets,” added Jen-Hsun Huang, chief executive officer, NVIDIA. “The world class team at MediaQ has made significant penetration and created strong relationships with key technology leaders in the areas of handsets, LCD displays, and PDAs, all essential ingredients in the 3G mobile multimedia revolution. "

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1st :-) This means Quake 3 on the Zodiac?

T.W.G @ 8/5/2003 7:12:23 AM #
True :-)

Thomas
www.twgmusic.de

RE: 1st :-) This means Quake 3 on the Zodiac?
helf @ 8/5/2003 7:37:31 AM #
I's prefer UT..but q3a will do nicely ;)

RE: 1st :-) This means Quake 3 on the Zodiac?
Konstantin @ 8/5/2003 8:55:41 AM #
What we gonna get is 3dmark 'optimized' scores.

:)

RE: 1st :-) This means Quake 3 on the Zodiac?
ha-me3 @ 8/8/2003 5:40:40 AM #
HAH! bluetooth UT2003. get all your friends in class to play a deathmatch... wait, that would be kinda hard to control. -_-'

Yo! i'm student bow.

Why not ATi?

linkinslpknt @ 8/5/2003 11:12:24 AM #
We know that ATi's cards are much better in quality and speed, especially since ATi doesn't need to cheat to make their scores competitive.

Guess I won't be buying one of these handhelds...

RE: Why not ATi?
stephen007 @ 8/5/2003 11:17:54 AM #
Oh quit your whining... you won't buy one of these handhelds because they don't use the provider you want? It's ATI or the highway for you?

Whatever.

Stephen

RE: Why not ATi?
abosco @ 8/5/2003 11:34:44 AM #
Why not use ATI? Quite simply because NVidia is the company that wants to buy MediaQ, not ATI. I don't care which provider can get what benchmark score on whatever system with whatever card; as long as I get a good processor that delivers powerful performance with low battery impact, I'll be happy.

Whining because ATI didn't want to do it is.. really dumb.

-Bosco

RE: Why not ATi?
Bartman007 @ 8/5/2003 12:04:01 PM #
Here is how I look at it:
YAY! Maybe this means that nVidia is ready to seriously jump into the handheld graphics acceleration market. It would be funny if their first product was called the M-80 (m-80 = explosive power of very small stick of dynomite.) Therefore they can link it to their old TNT line. "M-80, it's like TNT for your handheld."

Ok, there is my lame brainfart for the day.


Peace,
-Bartman007

RE: Why not ATi?
helf @ 8/5/2003 12:04:28 PM #
Dude, That is just plain stupid. As long as it gets good preformance and low batt suckage then its fine with me. You people will whine over every little detail..I'm starting to get sick of it.

man, using PIC with links over ssh is annoying :)

Competition!
rsc1000 @ 8/5/2003 12:47:14 PM #
ATI, nVidia - this is good. Both are now players in the mobile / pda graphics processor market. This insane rivalry will now benefit PDAs users like it has desktop users: pda graphics systems will get more and more powerful. This is good for consumers.

RE: Why not ATi?
Konstantin @ 8/5/2003 2:23:02 PM #
ATI does not cheat?
Get real, all hardware manufacturers inflate their performanceand sometimes even specs, no exceptions. ATI did it too. The only point is how much do they cheat, if there is any difference.

In this specific case ATI v NVIDA both have nice mainstream video cards, and ATI excels in high end ones, and the final word have not been said yet.

The mobile comunity will benefit with any investment on graphic acceleration, I cant wait to hear ATI announce something similar some time soon . Competition is always a good thing.



RE: Why not ATi?
arielb @ 8/6/2003 4:10:29 AM #
oh boy the countless crashes I've had with ATI Radeon 9700 pro. It's awful-I'd rather have the integrated VIA/savage than deal with another radeon crash

RE: Why not ATi?
ha-me3 @ 8/8/2003 5:45:43 AM #
4 words, NVIDIA IS STILL BETTER!

thank you

Yo! i'm student bow.

RE: Why not ATi?
helf @ 8/8/2003 11:38:46 AM #
3dfx all the way!! *rolls eyes*

I do use a voodoo 3 still.. I love that card..



Here we go again.....

vesther @ 8/5/2003 6:24:27 PM #
Competition on the Handheld Graphics Market is about to start.

IMO Handhelds will run better using ATi's Mobile Video Graphics Technology as opposed to nVidia's Graphics Technologies--I should point out that on the Desktop Environment, a High-End nVidia Graphics Card takes 2 PCI Slots and emits just way too much heat and somewhat consumes just too much power. ATi Video Chips for Handhelds (namely the Imageon) is the way to go to save Battery Power.

IMO Palm should favor ATi for all of their handhelds. I hope the Zires don't get powered by nVidia chips, though, as I want to see both the Tungstens and Zires in one roof as far as Memory, Architecture, Schematics, Intel X-Scale Equipment, whatever you can think would power Palm SG's future Handhelds.

Established Consumer Palm Handheld Possessor since 2002

RE: Here we go again.....
Konstantin @ 8/5/2003 6:49:42 PM #
Handhel graphics are light years behind the desktop and workstation graphic cards. There is NO comparision watsoever as to the requirements of a mobile handheld graphic processor.

And come on, this isnt fanATIcs vs nVidiots here, only 7% of users go buy that cutting edge 500-600 dollars video gpu. It is just publicity hype. "We are better! Our high end card scores 10 fps more that the competition! We cheat less on 3d benchmarks"

IMHO Palm should favor all interest to their handheld because we, the users, are the beneficiary.


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