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Nvidia confirmed Thursday it is licensing its Scalable Link Interface (SLI) technology to motherboard manufacturers for use with upcoming Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) CPUs.
This will allow Nvidia to expand its GPU market to motherboards that run AMD's upcoming FX-series Bulldozer processors, including the Zambezi processors, which are expected to launch soon. It will also create another market for AMD's new chips.
Nvidia's SLI connector is a proprietary link between GPUs that transmits synchronization, display, and pixel data. The SLI connector enables inter-GPU communication of up to 1 GB per second. SLI is primarily used for high-end gaming that requires high bandwidth processing of graphics. SLI is licensed to motherboard companies that will soon use AMD's 990FX, 990 X, and 970 chipsets. Asus, Gigabyte, ASRock, and MSI are among the first motherboard manufacturers to offer this new capability, and more are expected in the coming months, Nvidia said in a blog post.
The move is in direct response to requests from gamers that have been asking for AMD chips for their gameplay, said Tom Peterson, director of technical marketing for Nvidia's Gforce business. Previously, gamers could only use Intel chipsets in order to bring two Nvidia cards together in a SLI configuration.
"For years we've been getting requests from system builders and gamers to have our SLI compatible with AMD CPUs," Peterson said in an interview. "We resisted and didn't think there was much of a demand. But that is now changing and it is primarily because of gamers looking for good values to make that happen."