New Enthusiast System Architecture Hits Key Industry Milestones

New Extensions for for Monitoring and Controlling PC Peripherals Formally Ratified by USB Implementers Forum; Dell Ships World’s First ESA-Certified Desktop PC


SANTA CLARA, CA—FEBRUARY 2008 — NVIDIA Corporation (Nasdaq: NVDA), the world leader in visual computing technologies and the inventor of the GPU, today announced that the Enthusiast System Architecture (ESA) extensions have now officially been adopted by the USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF), paving the way for widespread industry adoption. As a result, the ESA protocol, which details the way PC peripherals can communicate with each other, will now be added into the next revision of the USB human interface device (HID)-class definition.

Furthering ESA momentum within the industry is the global availability of ESA-certified PC components produced by many of ESA’s founding partners, including Cooler Master, CoolIT Systems, NVIDIA®, PC Power & Cooling, Silverstone, Tagan, and Thermaltake. In addition, the new Dell XPS 630 is the first commercially-available desktop PC to be ESA-certified. The XPS 630 incorporates Dell’s innovative LightFX technology, which utilizes the ESA real-time communications protocol to provide developers an easy way to create highly immersive gaming experiences by synchronizing on-screen gaming action with the ambient lighting integrated into the PC chassis.

Originally introduced in late 2007, ESA was designed and introduced to support new monitoring and control capabilities for PC devices such as chassis, power supplies, and water and air cooling peripherals. Until the introduction of ESA, there was no standard communication protocol allowing such components to report information back to users. Essential data, such as temperature, thermal, voltage, and air flow attributes are made available in real-time and are critical to obtaining maximum PC performance and overclocking. With ESA, component manufacturers can now embed a wide variety of digital and analog sensors into their devices which can communicate real-time data for use in analyzing and optimizing overall PC operating conditions. In addition, ESA’s logging functionality offers PC manufacturers and system builders an inexpensive and easy way to help identify PC operating abnormalities, and enable them to quickly identify and resolve customer support issues.

Cross-device compatibility and compliance with the ESA specification is being handled by Allion, a leading IT testing organization. Products that have passed the Allion certification process will incorporate the new ESA logo, providing consumers with a valuable tool in their purchasing decision.

For additional information on ESA technology, please visit www.nvidia.com/ESA or the USB-IF at www.usb.org. The Dell XPS LightFX SDK can be downloaded directly from www.dell.com.
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