Chipmaker Nvidia has introduced a certification scheme to enhance platform stability

Chipmaker Nvidia has introduced a certification scheme to provide greater platform stability for desktop systems based on AMD chips. The move aims to appeal to business buyers by providing quality assurance and stability to match Intel-based PCs.

Under the Nvidia Business Platform (NBP) programme, PC motherboards will be designed and built to Nvidia specifications using a standard set of components such as Nvidia chipsets and graphics hardware. Vendors must guarantee availability of these configurations for at least a year.

The scheme is intended to help system integrators to compete for corporate accounts against the major vendors, which largely focus on Intel-based equipment, Nvidia said. Firms such as Maxdata and Compusys have already signed up as certified partners, as have motherboard makers Gigabyte, MSI and Asus.

"Intel has its stable image platform programme, which IT managers understand, " said David Ragones, Nvidia's product manager for NBP. "IT managers want to qualify [a configuration] once, and then be able to purchase exactly the same system throughout their budget cycle,"

Building a single stable platform image is made easier by Nvidia's unified driver architecture, he added, which enables the same driver to work with a range of Nvidia graphics cards and even between different generations of its graphics chips.

Nvidia said it plans yearly rolling revisions for NBP. Each revision will be supported for two years beyond the production year in which the platform is available.