NVIDIA to ‘Wind Down’ Icera Operations

NVIDIA, graphical dominator in the enthusiast market; has decided to pull out of its lesser known smartphone chip design and manufacturing. This follows the purchase of Icera in 2011 to bring NVIDIA powered technology to the smartphone sector. Taken directly from the NVIDIA website:

“NVIDIA today announced that it will wind down its Icera modem operations in the second quarter of fiscal 2016. The company is open to a sale of the technology or operations.

The company purchased Icera in 2011 to engage the smartphone revolution with a leading integrated application processor and modem platform. Since then, the company has reshaped its strategy to focus on high-growth opportunities in gaming, automotive and cloud computing applications like deep learning, where its visual computing expertise is greatly valued.

The Icera 4G LTE modem meets the company’s needs for the next year or more. Going forward, the company expects to partner with third-party modem suppliers and will no longer develop its own.

The Icera modem operation has approximately 500 employees, based primarily in the U.K. and France, with smaller operations in Asia and the United States.

Further details, including the financial impact, will be provided when NVIDIA’s first quarter financial results are announced on Thursday, May 7. To listen to the conference call with analysts and investors, which will be held that day at 2 p.m. PT (5 p.m. ET), dial (303) 223-2696; no password is required. A live webcast (listen-only mode) of the conference call will be accessible at NVIDIA’s investor relations website, http://investor.nvidia.com, and atwww.streetevents.com.”

That doesn’t sound too promising for the 500 heavily EU based employees, but it sounds good for those of us who love other NVIDIA products; more effort to be put into enthusiast graphics cards and automotive technology.

Were you looking forward to what NVIDIA and Icera had to offer? Let us know in the comments.