NVidia launched nForce2 today:
nForce2 continues Nvidia's venture into the risky but potentially profitable business of chipsets, chips that bridge a PC's processor with key components such as memory. Nvidia last year signed a licensing agreement with AMD to create chipsets that work with the company's Athlon processors.
nForce was rumored (Aug 31, 2001) to be coming to other platforms.. but little details except for hints from NVidia about "exciting introductions" in the Mac area this year.
Vague rumors were also circulating about an Apple / NVidia alliance... but seemed to be more speculative.
Steve Mason noted this interesting blurb on NVidia's nForce 2 Features page:
Digital Vibrance Control (DVC)
Allows the user to adjust color controls digitally to compensate for the lighting conditions of their workspace, in order to achieve accurate, bright colors in all conditions.
Currently this feature is not available on Mac systems.
Not currently available? Implying the rest of the features are available on the Mac... soon?
nForce is not simply a graphics card... but a motherboard chipset and utilizes Dual DDR (DDR400) and other technologies that would far exceed current PowerMac specs. Apple has been a member of the HyperTransport Consortium.... which previously spurred rumors of it making its way to the Macintosh.