Physical quality control issues. There was a big problem a while back with Nvidia integrated graphics failing pretty often that apparently had to do with bad potting material material in the chip modules that didn't have the same thermal expansion properties as the solder that Nvidia had switched to. A large number of MacBooks had to be replaced, costing a lot of money and consumer confidence. Google "bumpgate" for more information.
And while Nvidia's Kal-El is really nifty, I'd rather have an OMAP 5 in a mobile device. Four A15s at 40nm will probably drain too much power to get any sort of battery life while playing that demo. 28nm should be much better.
He means on the iPhone and iPad. Nvidia acquired PortalPlayer which was the chip used in the iPods, but Apple decided not to use them anymore and developed their own chip. Meanwhile PortalPlayer chips eventually became Tegra.
Also due to a lawsuit that was recently settled with Intel, Nvidia was unable to provide Nehalem chipsets to Apple, meaning that Apple ended up shipping Nvidia's Core 2 Duo chipset, but that won't last forever and Apple will eventually need a different partner (ATI). Nvidia announced earlier this year that they are developing their own CPUs based on ARM for desktops/notebooks, who knows maybe that will end up in Apple notebook line.
Apple did not "develop their own chip" in any meaningful sense, especially not in back in 2007 when Nvidia acquired PortalPlayer. The iPhone used an off-the-shelf Samsung part (the S5L8900), and PortalPlayer was in the business of audio SoCs for PMPs. The first generation Tegra was more than two years away at the release of the original iPhone.
Even if Apple had wanted to contract PortalPlayer for iPhone, they could not have.
Since then, they've mostly kept to off-the-shelf blocks, even the A4 only has minor restructuring of the blocks at the SoC level, the GPU is a standard SGX block.
If Nvidia is extracting a premium over other ARM vendors it's unlikely any kind of mobile deal with Apple would happen. Not sure they'd be crazy about rebranding their mobile flagship with an Apple logo either.
> If Nvidia is extracting a premium over other ARM vendors it's unlikely any kind of mobile deal with Apple would happen.
Not really.
> Not sure they'd be crazy about rebranding their mobile flagship with an Apple logo either.
Why would they have to rebrand anything? The iPhone and 3G SoCs were not branded, and the 3GS only had minor branding (an Apple logo on the top 20%). The A4 was the first iPhone SoC with truly significant rebranding.
That's the problem for nVidia as a supplier for Apple: iOS hardware is Apple branded, and most people do not know what is inside. nVidia wants to build their own brand, but Apple has no interest in that.
Sandy Bridge is good compared to AMD chips, but it's overrated compared to ARM chips. ARM chips are still far ahead in power consumption. Besides Intel, won't even have a Sandy Bridge Atom by late 2013.
Thats the bet nvidia made when they lost the chipset business. I'd say they are more interested in their own CPU specially now that Win8 is compatible with it.
And while Nvidia's Kal-El is really nifty, I'd rather have an OMAP 5 in a mobile device. Four A15s at 40nm will probably drain too much power to get any sort of battery life while playing that demo. 28nm should be much better.