NVDIA and Imec Join Forces, Will Research Scaling

It appears that NVIDIA really is trying to expand its horizons and get a better grasp of those already treated, as it has now entered a collaboration with semiconductor researcher Imec.

It became quite clear that NVIDIA was serious in its accumulation of resources, both material and of the intellectual property variety, when it bought Icera.

For those that want an update, Icera is a baseband processor maker and will enable the Santa Clara, California-based GPU maker to offer a more complete mobile solution.

Now, the same GPU company has entered a partnership with CMOS researcher Imec.

Imec is a technology research company that has the skill set necessary to enable product designers to easily assess the potential and impact of CMOS technologies on their roadmaps.

“As Nvidia continues to expand in markets ranging from super phones to supercomputers, we have accelerated the pace of innovation. By working closely with the world-renowned research team at Imec, we can develop advanced foundry techniques that deliver state-of-the-art solutions to our customers faster;” said John Chen, vice president of technology at Nvidia.

The partnership should allow NVIDIA to make early decisions on architectural design changes and reduce risks on technology adoption, even with faster learning cycles.

“Our advanced CMOS scaling offering for the product design community in IDMs, fabless, fablite, and system-design companies is gaining a lot of interest. We are excited to welcome Nvidia as a valuable partner in our technology-design ecosystem,” said Luc Van den hove, president and chief executive of Imec.

“This collaboration once again confirms that our offering helps companies anticipate new technologies, so that they may design more advanced systems and applications, and put them on the market faster."

What remains is to see if NVIDIA takes any more moves of this sort and wait to see how they affect its business practices.