Nvidia releases Unix driver to fix high-risk vulnerability
Graphics chip maker Nvidia released a new version of its Unix driver on Friday in order to address a high-risk vulnerability that can be exploited by local users to gain root privileges on Linux systems.
The privilege escalation vulnerability fixed in the new 304.32 version of the Nvidia Unix driver 304.32 was publicly disclosed last Wednesday by Dave Airlie, a principal engineer in the graphics team at Linux vendor Red Hat.
The public disclosure was done at the request of an anonymous researcher who originally discovered the flaw and after Nvidia failed to respond to a private report about the vulnerability, Airlie said in an email sent to the Full Disclosure mailing list.
Airlie's message also included proof-of-concept exploit code created by the anonymous researcher to demonstrate the vulnerability. Read more...
Nvidia expects to do well in Windows-on-ARM race
Three years ago, few people had heard of Nvidia processors.
But today the chipmaker is winning attention for its latest Tegra 3 quad-core technology being used in smartphones and tablets. The Tegra 3 is, for instance, used in the new Asus Transformer Pad 300 series and the Transformer Pad Infinity series, both of which were unveiled this week here at Mobile World Congress.
Nvidia, like Asus Technology and others, is widely regarded as a technology innovator, the kind of company that rises quickly to take on giants like Intel, Qualcomm and Texas Instruments (TI), analysts said. Read more...
Quad-core smartphones and tablets will soon get LTE
Nvidia has partnered with modem chipmakers GCT Semiconductor and Renesas Mobile to make it easier to build LTE (Long-Term Evolution) smartphones and tablets using its quad-core Tegra 3 processor, the company said on Thursday.
The companies' plan to jointly develop and support the modems will make it possible for phone manufacturers to speed the process of developing and building Tegra 3 devices for LTE networks, Nvidia said in a blog post.
The addition of LTE will result in "even better multiplayer gaming options, lightning-fast web browsing, and supercharged app downloads," according to Nvidia. Read more...
Impact of Thailand floods continues to bite tech industry
Nvidia lowered its revenue forecast Tuesday for the quarter ending Jan. 29, citing the impact of the hard disk drive (HDD) shortage caused by the Thailand floods on its mainstream GPU business.
Competitors Intel and Advanced Micro Devices also reported that they were affected by the floods, as HDD manufacturers like Western Digital start to bring their operations back to normal in Thailand.
Research firm Gartner however warned earlier this month that the major impact of the HDD shortage after the floods will be felt in the first half of this year, and even potentially continue through the year. The shortage had a limited impact on fourth quarter PC shipments and prices, but PC shipment growth could be temporarily affected during 2012, it said. Read more...
VMware, Nvidia team up to boost virtual desktop performance
VMware and Nvidia will work together to implement the graphics company Quadro's Virtual Graphics platform on VMware’s View virtual desktop platform in order to allow more users to ditch the traditional workstation.
The two companies announced the partnership at VMworld Europe in Copenhagen on Wednesday. A key part of VMware’s strategy for servers and desktops is to evolve its platforms and tools to allow more users to virtualize more applications.
The work with Nvidia is focused on the latter. Since the advent of server-based computing, handling graphics-intensive tasks has always been a challenge, but performance has gradually improved. Read more...
Nvidia boss: Windows 8 will run Windows Phone 7 apps
Nvidia has been outlining a future that sees a Qualcomm/Nvidia duopoly providing processors for every computing platform, which will share apps as well as chips.
Nvidia's CEO has been briefing journalists, including C-Net's Roger Cheng, pointing out that the company's Tegra chipsets are already powering half of the Android smartphones, and 70 per cent of tablets, and are looking forward to getting radio signal processing integrated too. But the CEO also made clear his belief that applications developed for Windows Phone 7 would find themselves happy running on Windows Desktop 8. Read more...
Nvidia shows tablet running quad-core Tegra chip
Nvidia has shown a prototype tablet computer running a four-core version of its Tegra processor and said products based on the new chip will go on sale starting in September.
Speaking to reporters ahead of the Computex trade show in Taipei on Monday, Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang also announced that Nvidia will have shipped 10 million of its existing dual-core Tegra 2 processors by the end of June.
Best known for its graphics chips, Nvidia has emerged as a force in the market for ARM-based processors used in smartphones and tablets, where it competes with more established mobile chip vendors such as Qualcomm and Texas Instruments. Read more...