The Nvision conference put on by chipmaker Nvidia is turning out to be unintentionally interesting. The stock price is down and Intel is looking to join AMD as a competitor in the high-end graphics processing market. Attendees are being greeted by union activists from Unite Here pointing out how the company has shipped thousands of faulty chips inside machines from Dell and HP.It's part of the union's strategy to convince the company to pressure subcontractor Aramark into negotiating a better deal with striking service workers. And after today's festivities, a group of Diggnation groupies will be delivered by CalTrain after a boozy ride from San Francisco for a live taping of the show at 6:30 p.m. after the day-long conference. Both the activists and the fanboys will surely add color to the official company line CEO Jen-Hsun Huang pitched at the keynote. (Photo by AP/Mark Lennihan)

A reporter for the Taiwanese site Digitimes says chipmaker Nvidia "has decided to quit the chipset business" and focus on its core business of standalone graphics processor unit (GPU) products, which must be matched with an Intel or AMD central processor inside a computer. Nvidia's NForce 200 chipset (pictured) wasn't as widely adopted as the company had planned. The news, if true, kills rumors that Apple would replace Intel chipsets with all-Nvidia hardware in the next round of MacBooks. (Photo by Bit-tech.net)

It turns out that Chinh Nguyen, the foul-mouthed, AmEx-flashing, self-described "balla" girlfriend of Nvidia vice president Neil Trevett, isn't just an indiscreet blogger; she's also an elite Yelptard. Yelp users like to celebrate their hundredth-review milestones, and for Nguyen's 300th, she chose to write up Valleywag. We are honored beyond words; before this, we were utterly Yelpless. Chinh, we at Valleywag really like your style. If the job interview you mentioned in our phone call doesn't work out, would you consider blogging? We have an opening for a reporter, and I think you'd fit right in here. Nguyen's Yelp review of Valleywag, "a National Enquirer for geeks":

Girls, are you having problems finding a successful boyfriend who works in tech? Maybe you should be meaner. That's how graphic designer Chinh Nguyen plays it with her man, Nvidia VP Neil Trevett. Describing one picture of Trevett, she writes, "My English Piggy (yes, he's really pink!)" Before you take offense on his behalf, note how self-deprecating Chinh is.

Nvidia should think about buying chipmaker AMD to "rearchitect it," according to American Technology Research analyst Doug Freedman. Translation: Kick out management, change its technology direction, and end AMD's perpetual Perils of Pauline drama. Both AMD and Intel have plans to integrate graphics functions into their microprocessors, rendering Nvidia's graphics cards superfluous. Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang would be a good candidate to turn around AMD's fortunes, and "buying AMD propels nVidia into a formidable competitor for Intel," says Freedman.

High-end graphics card maker Nvidia is making an ad push to make the brand as recognizable as Intel, which has spend millions on its "Intel Inside" ad campaign. Nvidia controls more than two-thirds of the market for desktop graphics cards but is facing competition from Intel and AMD, which bought graphics chipmaker ATI last year. Must be exciting for Nvidia marketing exec Dan Vivoli, who finally gets to spend some money after 10 years at the company: The ad campaign could cost as much as $30 million-$40 million, compared to a $353,000 spend in the first 9 months of 2007.

Forbes.com's Brian Caulfield has scored the magazine's latest cover story, a profile of graphics chipmaker Nvidia. Quite a coup, especially for a writer whose personal manner is so unassuming. But we wonder if some repressed aspects of his personality are starting to come out in recent headlines.

Nvidia reported excellent results for the just-ended third quarter. The graphics chip maker reported profits of $235.7 million on $1.12 billion in revenue — the first time quarterly revenue beat $1 billion. Revenue grew more than 36 percent and income was up 121 percent year-over-year. [The Register]

The latest ConFonz update leads right into an afterparty gossipfest. Continuing from where he left off: