[blelbach]

NVIDIA employs more software engineers than hardware engineers.

> Why do they need to run software in the same memory space as my mail reader ?

It is a lot more expensive to build functionality and fix bugs in silicon than it is to do those same things in software.

At NVIDIA, we do as much as we possible can in software. If a problem or bug can be solved in software instead of hardware, we prefer the software solution, because it has much lower cost and shorter lead times.

Solving a problem in hardware takes 2-4 years minimum, massive validation efforts, and has huge physical material costs and limitations. After it's shipped, we can't "patch" the hardware. Solving a problem in software can sometimes be done by one engineer in a single day. If we make a mistake in software, we can easy deploy a fix.

At NVIDIA we have a status for hardware bugs called "Won't Fix, Fix in Next Chip". This means "yes, there's a problem, but the earliest we can fix it is 2-4 years from now, regardless of how serious it is".

Can you imagine if we had to solve all problems that way? Wait 2-4 years?

On its own, our hardware is not a complete product. You would be unable to use it. It has too many bugs, it doesn't have all of the features, etc. The hardware is nothing without the software, and vice versa.

We do not make hardware. We make platforms, which are a combination of hardware and software. We have a tighter coupling between hardware and software than many other processor manufacturers, which is beneficial for us, because it means we can solve problems in software that other vendors would have to solve in hardware.

> I really do not understand why a (very good) hardware provider is willing to create/direct/hint custom software for the users.

Because we sell software. Our hardware wouldn't do anything for you without the software. If we tried to put everything we do in software into hardware, the die would be the size of your laptop and cost a million dollars each.

You wouldn't buy our hardware if we didn't give you the software that was necessary to use it.

> Isn't this exactly what a GPU firmware is expected to do ?

Firmware is a component of software, but usually has constraints that are much more similar to hardware, e.g. long lead times. In some cases the firmware is "burned in" and can't be changed after release, and then it's very much like hardware.