In addition to showing three new mobile chipsets, Nvidia may be baking some chips for Intel's coming Lynnfield platform. The GPU-maker fell off the chipset grid amidst 1366 licensing friction with Intel, and has yet to enter this high-end enthusiast segment.
In February, the two began a spat over whether or not Nvidia's chipset license covered processors with integrated memory controllers – like the Nehalem-based Core i series. As far as we know, there have been no significant advances on that front. Intel has remained the sole provider of chipsets for LGA 1366, but peculiarly, Nvidia has plans to introduce an LGA 1156 chipset in the first quarter of next year.
It's unclear how this is possible, considering Intel's new Lynnfield chips will also have an integrated memory controller - again, the source of their 1366 dispute. Some are also surprised by the alleged move seeing as Nvidia recently licensed its SLI technology for use on select Intel P55-based motherboards.
Codenamed MCP99, Nvidia's chip will most likely target budget and mid-range users, and pack an integrated graphics circuit with a dedicated 64-bit memory bus, in addition to the 128-bit memory controller bus. A batch of Intel's 1156 chipsets will ship with a graphics solution as well, but it is unknown whether it will match Nvidia's offer. Nvidia is also working on two LGA 775 chipsets, MCP85 and MCP89, which are outfitted similarly to MCP99.
