Energy Giant Hess Explores Benefits of Virtualization, NVIDIA SLI Multi OS Technology on HP Workstations

HOUSTON, TX--(Marketwire - October 26, 2009) - SEG 2009 -- NVIDIA announced today that Hess Corp., a leading global independent energy company, is using HP Z800 workstations outfitted with NVIDIA® Quadro® graphics processing units (GPUs) and NVIDIA SLI® Multi-OS technology to investigate reducing IT costs while increasing productivity for geosciences professionals.

Leveraging virtualization technologies from NVIDIA, Parallels and others, the HP Z800 workstation delivers the speed and expandability that oil and gas professionals can fully utilize to tackle their biggest challenges.

"In our constantly challenging and highly competitive business environment, cost-effective, flexible, powerful IT solutions are critically important," said Jeff Davis, manager, Technical Computing, at Hess. "We're examining how the HP Z800 workstation, bolstered by the technologies incorporated in it from NVIDIA, can help us with our ongoing exploration efforts."

NVIDIA SLI Multi-OS enables Hess to run both Microsoft Windows and Red Hat Enterprise Linux simultaneously on a single workstation.

Using Intel Virtualization Technology for Directed I/O (Intel VT-d) hardware acceleration, SLI Multi-OS allows Hess to directly assign NVIDIA Quadro graphics processing units (GPUs) to virtual machines -- a breakthrough capability for graphics-intensive applications.

Parallels Workstation 4.0 Extreme is the first high-end workstation virtualization solution to offer users near-native performance for graphics-intensive applications. The product leverages the key virtualization technologies enabled by NVIDIA and Intel to deliver highly performing virtual machines for the most demanding visualization applications.

"Instead of running applications on different machines, and moving data back and forth over the network, SLI Multi-OS radically streamlines users' workflows and instantly enhances productivity," said Jeff Brown, general manager, NVIDIA Professional Solutions Group. "We believe Hess' use of fully virtualized workstations will make their employees more efficient, while lowering the total cost of ownership."

HP and NVIDIA will be demonstrating the HP Z800 workstation powered by Quadro professional graphics solutions and SLI Multi-OS technology, Intel VT-d and Parallels Workstation 4.0 Extreme, at the Society of Exploration Geophysicists International Exposition (SEG 2009) at the George R. Brown Convention Center, Houston, TX, in the HP booth, #631, October 26th through 29th.

The SLI Multi-OS capability is available on the NVIDIA Quadro FX 3800, Quadro FX 4800, and Quadro FX 5800 graphics solutions and supports selected combinations of Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Linux operating systems. For more information on SLI Multi-OS, please visit: www.nvidia.com/object/sli_multi_os.html.

For more information on NVIDIA Quadro solutions, please visit: www.nvidia.com/quadro.

About NVIDIA

NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA) awakened the world to the power of computer graphics when it invented the graphics processing unit (GPU) in 1999. Since then, it has consistently set new standards in visual computing with breathtaking, interactive graphics available on devices ranging from portable media players to notebooks to workstations. NVIDIA's expertise in programmable GPUs has led to breakthroughs in parallel processing which make supercomputing inexpensive and widely accessible. Fortune magazine has ranked NVIDIA #1 in innovation in the semiconductor industry for two years in a row. For more information, see www.nvidia.com.

Copyright© 2009 NVIDIA Corporation. All rights reserved. NVIDIA, the NVIDIA logo, Quadro, and NVIDIA SLI are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of NVIDIA Corporation in the U.S. and other countries. Other company and product names may be trademarks of the respective companies with which they are associated. Features, pricing, availability, and specifications are subject to change without notice.

Certain statements in this press release including, but not limited to, statements as to: the benefits, features, impact, performance and capabilities of NVIDIA GPUs and SLI Multi-OS technology are forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause results to be materially different than expectations. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially include: development of more efficient or faster technology; design, manufacturing or software defects; the impact of technological development and competition; changes in consumer preferences and demands; customer adoption of different standards or our competitor's products; changes in industry standards and interfaces; unexpected loss of performance of our products or technologies when integrated into systems as well as other factors detailed from time to time in the reports NVIDIA files with the Securities and Exchange Commission including its Form 10-Q for the fiscal period ended July 26, 2009. Copies of reports filed with the SEC are posted on our website and are available from NVIDIA without charge. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and speak only as of the date hereof, and, except as required by law, NVIDIA disclaims any obligation to update these forward-looking statements to reflect future events or circumstances.

Contact Information: For more information, contact: Mark Priscaro NVIDIA Corporation (408) 486-2438 mpriscaro@nvidia.com