Merril Lynch Says No GeForce FX Before April

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A report on Cnet from Merril Lynch brokers states that the company learned at a Comdex meeting with Nvidia's management that volume shipments won't make it before April 2003. According to the report Nvidia is going to launch several iterations of the NV3x VPU in the same timeframe, including low cost models. *The first order of business for NVIDIA is to get NV30 off the ground. Though we picked up product specifics at the launch on Monday, we had a chance to get more detail on the timing of the ramp and remaining challenges yesterday. As expected, NVDIA has chosen not to use low-k dielectric on the NV-30, a decision which involves some performance compromises but also lowers the risk of any manufacturing miscues. With the part now qualified, waiting on system integrators to finish boards is the issue ? that clearly is not going to happen until the April quarter. * It will be very important for NVIDIA to successfully ramp the lower-cost versions of NV3X in time to hit the April 2003 quarter, however. The successful launch of the high-end part will not be enough to support a revenue upturn in the April quarter. Management was not willing to answer questions about whether additional versions of NV3X have taped out, although the intention to hit the April quarter was reiterated during our conversation. Source: Cnet investor report