Apple, Nvidia may be parting ways
Apple and Nvidia may be parting ways soon over production quality problems with Nvidia chipsets across much of the Apple line, and it turns out that Apple may not be alone in jumping ship.
There have been problems for some time with what have been called “bumps,” which cause the chips to lose their grip on the boards to which they are supposedly attached. This has caused problems in Apple notebooks, as well as in the iMac and Mini series of computers. Some Nvidia chips (it is unknown exactly what number or percentage) have shipped with substandard materials and resulting thermal stress. These have caused the tiny “bumps” of solder to crack, resulting in failure of the chip. Nvidia has not been forthcoming with batch information, which could have helped both PC manufacturers and users.
Nvidia has already taken a $200 million charge over the problem, last July, but they refuse to support their customers by reporting exactly which parts are defective, and what computers they were sold in. It is possible to piece together some of this information from message boards, but not nearly enough to be really helpful. It would appear that the companies that experienced the most problems are Dell, HP, and Apple. Nvidia has said that the problem only affects notebooks. Manufacturers say that desktops also experience problems.
Apple has bent over backward to help customers that are experiencing the failure. They have even extended the warranty on systems with the Nvidia “bump” problem from the normal one year to three years. Given that repairing this problem requires a costly swap of the motherboard, the problem has got to be costing Apple a lot of money.
This has resulted in harsh words indeed between the two companies, with Nvidia reportedly being arrogant, and with Apple apparently responding with some very harsh language. In the end, it is reported by SemiAccurate that Apple has told Nvidia that they will not be purchasing components for a period of up to three or four years.
There are additional reports that Dell is likely to make a similar move in the very near future. Nothing has been said by HP, but they were also badly hurt and may also be abandoning Nvidia. One is amazed by how quickly a tech vendor can be hurt by simple errors in production quality, but news travels fast in Silicon Valley. It remains to be seen how badly hurt Nvidia will be in the end.
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