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Report: Nvidia chimes in, says Intel pricing unfair

Following the European Union decision to fine Intel $1.45 billion, Nvidia is crying foul too.

Brooke Crothers Former CNET contributor
Brooke Crothers writes about mobile computer systems, including laptops, tablets, smartphones: how they define the computing experience and the hardware that makes them tick. He has served as an editor at large at CNET News and a contributing reporter to The New York Times' Bits and Technology sections. His interest in things small began when living in Tokyo in a very small apartment for a very long time.
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Brooke Crothers

Following the European Union's decision to fine Intel for "illegal" business practices, Nvidia is crying foul too, according to a report.

Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang said Intel's chip pricing is unfair but added that the graphics chipmaker will not seek antitrust action against Intel, according to a Reuter's report.

This is a beef that Nvidia has had with Intel ever since Nvidia's Ion graphics chipset debuted last year. The competitive backdrop is Intel's longstanding vision of a CPU-centric universe versus Nvidia's creed that graphics processing matters more and more in a multimedia-intensive world.

Inside every Acer, Asus, Hewlett-Packard, and Dell Netbook beats an Intel silicon core. Intel supplies both the central processing unit (CPU) and graphics processing unit (GPU)--the latter in the form of the Intel integrated Graphics Media Accelerator.

Nvidia wants in. It maintains that Intel-only Netbooks don't deliver the graphics horsepower that Nvidia graphics silicon can.

Huang said Intel sells an Atom chip by itself for $45, but sells a three-chip set for $25 to lure business away, according to Reuters. "That seems pretty unfair," he said to Reuters.

This accusation by Huang follows the European Commission's decision to fine Intel $1.45 billion for employing "illegal" tactics to compete against Advanced Micro Devices.

An Intel spokesman said that computer makers are free to purchase the Atom chip alone or bundled with other chips. "If you want to purchase the chip set, obviously there is better pricing," he told Reuters.