NVIDIA Reportedly Plans New Intel-Ready MCP89, MCP99 Chipsets

One of the hot topics in today's computer industry is the ongoing battle between two of the world's largest manufacturers of computer hardware, NVIDIA and Intel. Early this year, the two engaged in a legal dispute that saw the latter filing a complaint against its Santa Clara, California-based neighbor, claiming that the four-year-old chipset license agreement between the two no longer applied to the company's next-generation processors with integrated graphics. Since then, there haven't been any specific details on future NVIDIA chipset products; that is, up until now. According to a recent report, the graphics chip maker is planning to update its product portfolio with the addition of two new products, the so-called MCP89 and MCP99.

In a recent news-article that surfaced on the Chinese-language HKEPC, the Santa Clara, California-based NVIDIA is said to be working on the development of its future, Intel-supporting motherboard chipsets. These two are expected to enter production as early as the first quarter of 2010, which means that we could see new systems that mix Intel's upcoming LGA 1156-compatible processors with said NVIDIA chipsets.

Unfortunately, the technical details on the two products are rather scarce at the moment, but it looks like the MCP89 will be designed for Intel's LGA 775 processors, while the MCP99 will enable support for Intel's next-generation desktop CPUs. The former is designed with a DirectX 10-supporting graphics core and will offer support for Intel CPUs with an FSB of 1333MHz and DDR3-1333 memory. The latter, on the other hand, could have some issues entering production, as it’s meant for Intel's 45nm and 32nm CPUs, compatible with the upcoming LGA 1156 socket. It's yet unclear when this product will become available to users, but there's a strong possibility Intel will have something to say about it.