Nvidia CFO Hints At No Spring PS3 Launch

Nvidia CFO Hints At No Spring PS3 Launch

By: Jared Black


In a conference call today discussing fiscal Q4 2006 results, Nvidia
CFO Marv Burkett may have once and for all inadvertently settled the
industry's worst-kept secret: the PlayStation 3 will not launch this
Spring despite Sony's claims to the contrary. During the conference
call, Burkett stated that although the company's RSX graphics chip to
be used in the PS3 is complete and ready for production, Nvidia didn't
expect to receive any royalties for the current fiscal quarter ending
in April.

Naturally, if Nvidia isn't receiving any royalties on the chip, that
almost certainly means Sony isn't producing any consoles that use the
chip. And if Sony isn't going to begin producing consoles that use the
chip until after April, then of course a launch during the Spring is
impossible without some sort of time travel or voodoo magic involved.

Sorry fanboys, but it's time to give in to good old common sense and
count on a fall launch for Sony's uber-console.

http://ps3.vggen.com/news/news.php?id=465


.................................................. .................................................. ...................................

A Clue From Nvidia On PlayStation 3 Schedule

Dean Takahashi, 06:28 PM in Dean Takahashi, Gaming

Graphics chip maker Nvidia reported today that it doesn't anticipate
any royalties from Sony during the current fiscal quarter which closes
at the end of April. In a conference call, Chief Financial Officer Marv
Burkett made the statement. Jen-Hsun Huang, CEO, said that he couldn't
talk about the schedule for the PlayStation 3. He said that Nvidia's
RSX graphics chip for the PS 3 is done and the company has production
silicon for it.

However, since Nvidia won't be collecting royalties on the chip this
quarter, that suggests that Sony isn't going to be producing machines
during the months that close at the end of April, 2006. That suggests
that Sony won't be shipping the PS 3 anytime soon, despite its comment
last May that it would ship in the spring of 2006.

Nvidia got license and engineering revenue from Sony amounting to $20
million in its previous quarter that ended Jan. 29. Publications such
as Next Generation Biz have said that the launch of the PS 3 won't
happen until the fall. Burkett said that Nvidia got follow-on
engineering contracts from Sony and so that it continued to spend money
on engineering development for Sony.

Nvidia had a strong quarter with net income doubling to $98 million and
sales growing 12 percent to $633.6 million compared to a year ago.
Huang predicted that the graphics business will do well this year from
the adoption of high-definition TV/computing as well as the launch of
the Windows Vista operating system. Regarding a new PC graphics chip,
Huang said, "I don't have anything to announce today. The buzz around
the industry is we have something to announce soon."

http://blogs.mercurynews.com/aei/200..._from_nvi.html

The irony is, this delay may be because of the Blu-Ray playback
features of the PS3. The AACS being delayed will knock on the PS3
launch, even by just one month - thus mussing Spring.

Besides, I dont think anyone with an ounce of common sense really
expected it to launch so soon.

Sony may well just try a simultaneous USA and Japan release after all,
just to get back some of the momentum they would have lost...

Radeon wrote:
> Nvidia CFO Hints At No Spring PS3 Launch
>
> By: Jared Black
>
>
> In a conference call today discussing fiscal Q4 2006 results, Nvidia
> CFO Marv Burkett may have once and for all inadvertently settled the
> industry's worst-kept secret: the PlayStation 3 will not launch this
> Spring despite Sony's claims to the contrary. During the conference
> call, Burkett stated that although the company's RSX graphics chip to
> be used in the PS3 is complete and ready for production, Nvidia didn't
> expect to receive any royalties for the current fiscal quarter ending
> in April.
>
> Naturally, if Nvidia isn't receiving any royalties on the chip, that
> almost certainly means Sony isn't producing any consoles that use the
> chip. And if Sony isn't going to begin producing consoles that use the
> chip until after April, then of course a launch during the Spring is
> impossible without some sort of time travel or voodoo magic involved.
>
> Sorry fanboys, but it's time to give in to good old common sense and
> count on a fall launch for Sony's uber-console.
>
> http://ps3.vggen.com/news/news.php?id=465
>
>
> .................................................. .................................................. ..................................
>
> A Clue From Nvidia On PlayStation 3 Schedule
>
> Dean Takahashi, 06:28 PM in Dean Takahashi, Gaming
>
> Graphics chip maker Nvidia reported today that it doesn't anticipate
> any royalties from Sony during the current fiscal quarter which closes
> at the end of April. In a conference call, Chief Financial Officer Marv
> Burkett made the statement. Jen-Hsun Huang, CEO, said that he couldn't
> talk about the schedule for the PlayStation 3. He said that Nvidia's
> RSX graphics chip for the PS 3 is done and the company has production
> silicon for it.
>
> However, since Nvidia won't be collecting royalties on the chip this
> quarter, that suggests that Sony isn't going to be producing machines
> during the months that close at the end of April, 2006. That suggests
> that Sony won't be shipping the PS 3 anytime soon, despite its comment
> last May that it would ship in the spring of 2006.
>
> Nvidia got license and engineering revenue from Sony amounting to $20
> million in its previous quarter that ended Jan. 29. Publications such
> as Next Generation Biz have said that the launch of the PS 3 won't
> happen until the fall. Burkett said that Nvidia got follow-on
> engineering contracts from Sony and so that it continued to spend money
> on engineering development for Sony.
>
> Nvidia had a strong quarter with net income doubling to $98 million and
> sales growing 12 percent to $633.6 million compared to a year ago.
> Huang predicted that the graphics business will do well this year from
> the adoption of high-definition TV/computing as well as the launch of
> the Windows Vista operating system. Regarding a new PC graphics chip,
> Huang said, "I don't have anything to announce today. The buzz around
> the industry is we have something to announce soon."
>
> http://blogs.mercurynews.com/aei/200..._from_nvi.html

Nividia is not manufacturing the RSX. Actually, Nvidia does not
manufacture their GPU, they are fabless. The Geforce GPU is
manufactured mostly by TSMC. Nvidia designed the RSX under a paid
contract with Sony. Sony is manufacturing the RSX themselves at their
Nagasaki plant and the joint Toshiba fab. The RSX taped out in October
2005, was in EDM silicon in November and pre-production silicon in
December. They have been manufactured in volume since then. Nvidia
starts receiving royalties once the RSX units start selling, that is,
from RSX sales inside PS3 units. The CFO is stating this is expected to
start happening some time after April.

"The PS2 was shown at TGS in 1999 without any playable demos. Playable
demos weren't shown until the Sony Conference in February 2000, then
the console was released in March of 2000."

Nividia is not manufacturing the RSX. Actually, Nvidia does not
manufacture their GPU, they are fabless. The Geforce GPU is
manufactured mostly by TSMC. Nvidia designed the RSX under a paid
contract with Sony. Sony is manufacturing the RSX themselves at their
Nagasaki plant and the joint Toshiba fab. The RSX taped out in October
2005, was in EDM silicon in November and pre-production silicon in
December. They have been manufactured in volume since then. Nvidia
starts receiving royalties once the RSX units start selling, that is,
from RSX sales inside PS3 units. The CFO is stating this is expected to
start happening some time after April.

"The PS2 was shown at TGS in 1999 without any playable demos. Playable
demos weren't shown until the Sony Conference in February 2000, then
the console was released in March of 2000."

Blig, you just cannot admit that you won't be able to get your precious
PS3,
even a Japanese one, until the fall.

......haha, j/k.

interesting post about the RSX readiness and production timeline.

we'll see what happens won't we ?


Blig Merk wrote:
> Nividia is not manufacturing the RSX. Actually, Nvidia does not
> manufacture their GPU, they are fabless. The Geforce GPU is
> manufactured mostly by TSMC. Nvidia designed the RSX under a paid
> contract with Sony. Sony is manufacturing the RSX themselves at their
> Nagasaki plant and the joint Toshiba fab. The RSX taped out in October
> 2005, was in EDM silicon in November and pre-production silicon in
> December. They have been manufactured in volume since then. Nvidia
> starts receiving royalties once the RSX units start selling, that is,
> from RSX sales inside PS3 units. The CFO is stating this is expected to
> start happening some time after April.
>
> "The PS2 was shown at TGS in 1999 without any playable demos. Playable
> demos weren't shown until the Sony Conference in February 2000, then
> the console was released in March of 2000."

Swam Mollen wrote:
> The irony is, this delay may be because of the Blu-Ray playback
> features of the PS3. The AACS being delayed will knock on the PS3
> launch, even by just one month - thus mussing Spring.
>
> Besides, I dont think anyone with an ounce of common sense really
> expected it to launch so soon.
>
> Sony may well just try a simultaneous USA and Japan release after all,
> just to get back some of the momentum they would have lost...
>

I think by spring Sony really meant when they'd finally let us in on
everything about the ps3... THAT would be spring. But launch is real
FALL. LOL

I do agree with the AACS thing. Its probably that they want all their
ducks in a row before they give us information that they might not be
able to come through on. As i'm sure Sony knows how we feel about them
not delivering what they say. They seriously need to be very cautious
coming around that last corner toward launch. Beside the AACS thing, i
really hope they are planning on launching with plenty of console for
the shelves. No one (early adopters) gets left behind. And we can all
enjoy Playstation HUB together. As homosexual as that sounds. LOL

On 16 Feb 2006 23:29:51 -0800, "Swam Mollen"
<> wrote:

>The irony is, this delay may be because of the Blu-Ray playback
>features of the PS3. The AACS being delayed will knock on the PS3
>launch, even by just one month - thus mussing Spring.
>
>Besides, I dont think anyone with an ounce of common sense really
>expected it to launch so soon.
>
>Sony may well just try a simultaneous USA and Japan release after all,
>just to get back some of the momentum they would have lost...
>

Er, exactly what momentum ??

Seems as if Xflop360 will be obsolete technology before it is offered
for sale at any US outlets expecting consistent volume shipment before
they touch the product....like CompUSA, Costco or Fry's.

Anyway, the Xflop720 is coming probably by next Christmas... i.e the
redesigned Xflop360 with 65nm technology to reduce the internal
frying-pan heat and an integrated HD-DVD or Blu-ray drive.

John Lewis

John Lewis wrote:

> Xflop360
> Xflop720
> Xflop360

You've become Bligmerk. What little credibility you had is no gone.

Brenden D. Chase wrote:
> I do agree with the AACS thing. Its probably that they want all their

AACS was resolved Wednesday Feb. 15. It was just a finalization of
specific parameters and was not really hardware related. The AACS
agreement allows for the transfer of the master encryption key to the
disk pressers. It is the Toshiba players that are going to require a
firmware upgrade to catch up to the last minute changes. There are many
other issues associated with AACS but they have very little to do with
the PS3 schedule. Stand-alone HD movie players have to have AACS
decryption in firmware since they are hardware players. The PS3 is a
HD movie player through software. AACS=DRM. Remember what I said about
how PS3 handles DRM? I didn't think so.

Once more you write as if you know what you are talking about. THe
annoncement at the beginning of the week that AACS has delayed the
Blu-Ray and HD-DVD launches by a month still holds. Wether they
resolved those problems a few days later matters little, if the delay
caused a knock on month long hold, the that's what it did, regardless
of what you are trying to disprove.

ALl modern hardware for this kind of purpose contains flash-upgradeable
hardware, and since HD-DVD has yet to hit the market too, it will
easily be upgraded before hitting shelves.

THe only difference between the PS3 and HD-DVD/Blu-Ray standalone
players is that it uses software to decode, rather than dedicated DSPs.

As for this 8th Cell used for DRM, I think you need to backtrack on
that, since Sony, and Ars Technica have BOTH stated it is disabled.


Blig Merk wrote:
> Brenden D. Chase wrote:
> > I do agree with the AACS thing. Its probably that they want all their
>
> AACS was resolved Wednesday Feb. 15. It was just a finalization of
> specific parameters and was not really hardware related. The AACS
> agreement allows for the transfer of the master encryption key to the
> disk pressers. It is the Toshiba players that are going to require a
> firmware upgrade to catch up to the last minute changes. There are many
> other issues associated with AACS but they have very little to do with
> the PS3 schedule. Stand-alone HD movie players have to have AACS
> decryption in firmware since they are hardware players. The PS3 is a
> HD movie player through software. AACS=DRM. Remember what I said about
> how PS3 handles DRM? I didn't think so.