The NVIDIA Linux Advantage
The NVIDIA Linux Advantage
World Leader in
3D Graphics & Visual Computing
Others
Over 170 Million Unit Annual Market
Market Changing Products
The World s Most
Powerful Game Console
The Industry s First
Mobile Workstations
The Industry s Most
Revolutionary Design
1955-S801
The First True Mobile Desktop
NVIDIA Linux Software Tops in Industry
Complete Unified Driver support for OpenGL and
advanced NVIDIA features
Industry recognized leader in Linux driver quality,
stability, compatibility and support
Industry s fastest Linux graphics performance
As measured by SPEC Viewperf benchmark
Working with Key Linux Industry
Partners
Linux Distributions
OEMs, including
ISVs
Unified Driver Architecture (UDA)
Enables the industry s highest quality software for NVIDIA GPUs
Single driver binary for 200+ NVIDIA products
Allows NVIDIA to easily support numerous operating systems
95% of all code base is shared between all operating systems
Enables NVIDIA to easily release drivers for new processors and
operating systems that are:
Fully featured
Highest performance
Rock solid stable
Forward and backward compatible with all architectures
IT departments can easily setup, deploy, and support large systems
with a variety of NVIDIA processors
NVIDIA Driver Release Timeline
1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003
April 25, 2000
February 21, 1999
July 7, 1998
April 23, 2002
First IA32 binary
First UDA
First UDA
First Linux nForce audio
release
Windows 2000
Windows 95
and networking release
release
release
Oct 2, 2000
April 25, 2002
First UDA Windows
First Linux Itanium
XP release
driver
May 17, 2001
First Linux release with
November 7, 2002
Pixel and Vertex
Shader support
First FreeBSD release
September 1, 2001
November 26, 2002
First Linux release with
First nForce2 release
mobile release
December 11, 2002
November 29, 2001
First Linux IA32, IA64, and
First Linux nForce
AMD64 release with CineFX
graphics release
architecture support
Linux
NVIDIA Driver Release Timeline
1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003
April 25, 2000
February 21, 1999
July 7, 1998
April 23, 2002
March 31, 2003
First IA32 binary
First UDA
First UDA
First Linux nForce audio
NVIDIA Linux
release
Windows 2000
Windows 95
and networking release
Update
release
release
Oct 2, 2000
April 25, 2002
First UDA Windows
First Linux Itanium
XP release
driver
May 17, 2001
First Linux release with
November 7, 2002
Pixel and Vertex
Shader support
First FreeBSD release
September 1, 2001
November 26, 2002
First Linux release with
First nForce2 release
mobile release
December 11, 2002
November 29, 2001
First Linux IA32, IA64, and
First Linux nForce
AMD64 release with CineFX
graphics release
architecture support
Linux
New
Linux Desktop
Industry s highest quality consumer Linux solution, powering the latest
games and applications
IA32 (Intel Pentium and AMD Athlon)
Pixel and Vertex Shader support
OpenGL 1.4 with CineFX Architecture support
Multi-monitor support
AMD64 (Athlon 64)
Pixel and Vertex Shader support GeForceFX and Athlon 64
powered Linux UT2003
OpenGL 1.4 with CineFX Architecture support
demonstration at Comdex 2002
FreeBSD
Released our first driver in November 2002
Pixel and Vertex Shader support
OpenGL 1.4 with CineFX Architecture support
Linux Mobile
Industry s most comprehensive Linux mobile solution
IA32 (Intel Pentium and AMD Athlon platforms)
Power management for hibernate/resume modes
Full mobile hot key support
Multi-monitor support
FreeBSD
Supports all NVIDIA processors
OpenGL 1.3 support
GLX 1.2 support
Linux Platform
The Only Complete Linux platform software solution
IA32 (AMD Athlon)
100% Linux platform software solution for:
High-performing graphics
Multi-monitor configurations
USB/ USB 2.0
FireWire
IDE
Audio
Networking
Communication
Set top box design wins
Linux Workstation
Top to bottom performance leader for Linux workstation graphics,
including post production, military, CAD and DCC applications
IA32 (Intel Pentium and AMD Athlon)
Support for Quadro hardware features
Windows and Linux performance parity; SPEC Viewperf performance leader
Rapidly displacing proprietary UNIX platforms
ISV Certifications (i.e. Maya)
Multi-monitor support
OpenGL 1.4 with CineFX architecture support
IA64 (Intel Itanium)
Full support for Quadro hardware features
Fastest IA64 Linux SPEC Viewperf performance
CineFX architecture support
AMD64 (Athlon 64)
Industry s first graphics solution for Athlon 64 processors
Quadro workstation ready
OpenGL 1.4 with CineFX architecture support
GLX 1.3 support
FreeBSD
First release in November 2002
Supports Quadro hardware features
OpenGL 1.3 support
GLX 1.2 support
Introducing NVIDIA Linux Update
Integrated installer simplifies setup and deployment
Intelligently download new drivers directly to your PC
Fully supports all major Linux OSes and CPUs
100% uptime on NVIDIA s dedicated FTP servers
NVIDIA Linux Update
Why do you need it?
Ease of use installation and deployment of software
Detection of Linux operating, kernel and CPU
Sets up the system for optimal performance and stability
Future-proof drivers
Downloads and installs newer NVIDIA driver if available
Checks for precompiled kernel interfaces for kernels that were
released *after* our driver were
When can you get it?
March 31, 2003; Driver version 1.0-4349
Unified Driver Architecture
NVIDIA Linux Update
GeForce FX and Quadro FX support
Red Hat 9.0 and Mandrake 9.1 support
NVIDIA Linux Software Advantage
NVIDIA Others
Unified Driver Architecture Yes, one driver supports all No, multiple drivers available
graphics chips from hardware vendor, DRI
Project, Utah-GLX teams
OpenGL Performance Industry leader as measured by Not the industry leader
Quake3 and SPEC Viewperf
Auto-update utility Yes, built into driver No
Install 100% compatible with Yes, 100% compatible install No, RPM only
all Linux OSs
Support Two dedicated support e-mail Online feedback forum only
addresses and online support
forums
Customer Using NVIDIA Linux Today
Digital Content Creation (DCC)
One of the largest digital studios in the world
Standardized on Quadro4 GPUs and Linux
Hosts an integrated production studio that includes divisions for:
feature film visual effects (Titanic)
commercial production
music videos
location-based entertainment
feature film development
 What has distinguished NVIDIA most for us has been their customer service
and their commitment to helping Digital Domain experience a smooth
transition to Linux. We re also impressed with the quality of their Linux
drivers and the level of cooperation we received to make sure that NUKE
runs impeccably with their professional graphics hardware. We don t give
praise lightly and we pick our technology partners with great care. NVIDIA
has earned our business by providing outstanding graphics hardware,
software and support that we can rely on.
Michael Taylor, Vice President of the Digital Studio at Digital Domain
Press release available at http://www.nvidia.com/view.asp?IO=IO_20021106_7748
Customer Using NVIDIA Linux Today
Oil & Gas
Leading supplier of software and services for the upstream
oil and gas industry
Specializes in high-performance volume visualization and
interpretation solutions
MagicDesk"!
The industry's ultimate PC solution, delivering the power of
GeoProbe on Linux, for detailed reservoir analysis
IBM® Intellistation® M Pro with NVIDIA Quadro4 900 XGL
More information on MagicDesk is available at www.magicearth.com
Customer Using NVIDIA Linux Today
Scientific Visualization
Ohio Supercomputer Center at Ohio State University
Deployed over 50 NVIDIA Quadro"!4 900 XGL workstation graphics boards
for an integrated visualization cluster used to research large scale
(Terascale) visualizations
Used in the BALE (Blueprint for an Advanced Learning Environment)
program
 OSC looks forward to using the latest technology from NVIDIA to provide large
scale, real-time volume rendering results. To be able to decompose the
computation and graphics within the same node will provide real-time results
for massive computations that have long been a need of researchers across
the state of Ohio.
OSC Associate Director Al Stutz
More information on BALE is available at http://www.osc.edu/hpc/bale/index.html
Press release available at http://www.nvidia.com/view.asp?IO=IO_20020719_7076
NVIDIA Linux Support
Largest provider of Linux graphics support for OEMs
100% supported by NVIDIA engineers, not by third parties
Two dedicated public support e-mail aliases for all
processors
NVIDIA dedicated support guarantees Linux solutions work
Complete Unified Driver support for OpenGL and advanced
NVIDIA features
Industry recognized leader in Linux driver quality, stability,
compatibility, performance and support