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Description: NVIDIA Corporation (pronounced as ‘invidia’) is a multinational corporation specializing in the development and manufacture of graphic processors. These graphic processors, or video cards as they are more commonly known, are used for desktop computers, workstations, and other devices like mobile gadgets and game consoles. NVIDIA also manufactures chipsets for personal computer motherboards, processors for wireless cable communications, and software for personal media players. One of NVIDIA’s best known products is the GeForce line of graphic processing hardware.

Chris Malachowsky, Curtis Priem, and Jun-Hsun Huang, the company’s present Chief Executive Officer, founded NVIDIA in 1993. The company’s operations are based in Santa Clara, California, USA.

In 2000, NVIDIA acquired the intellectual assets of 3dfx, one of its closest rivals during the 1990s. NVIDIA also acquired ULI Electronics, the manufacturer and distributor of third party chipsets for ATI, in 2005. ULI Electronics was also one of NVIDIA’s toughest competitors. March 2006 saw NVIDIA’s acquisition of Hybrid Graphics, one of the best known 3D software developers specializing in computer games solutions. NVIDIA established an office in Helsinki, Finland, the hometown of Hybrid Graphics.

In January 5, 2007, NVIDIA announced to the public its acquisition of PortalPlayer. PortalPlayer is a semiconductor company focusing on supplying semiconductors, firmware, and software for portable media players.

NVIDIA also brought control of Ageia Technologies, another semiconductor company, in February 2008. Ageia came up with the PhysX, a chipset capable of performing physics calculations at a much faster speed than ordinary CPUs. According to Jun-Hsun Huang, the combined efforts of NVIDIA and Ageia can deliver better gaming experiences by providing GeForce-accelerated PhysX.

The company acquired its name by combining the letter n, commonly used in mathematical equations, and vidia the Latin root of video. This combination gave the company’s name a resemblance to the Italian word invidia, meaning ‘envy.’ NVIDIA further capitalized on this wordplay when it used the slogan ‘Green with Envy’ on their GeForce 8 series of graphic processing units for online gamers.

In 2007, Forbes business magazine named NVIDIA the Company of the Year for its excellence in the field of hardware computing services and accomplishments.

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