The companies that received the awards, which were based on technology value utilizing the graphics processing unit (GPU), market opportunity and potential impact include:

-- IQ Engines, of Berkeley, Calif., recognizes and labels images, monetizing photos by tying them to relevant retailers.

-- Milabra, of New York City, uses a multi-point visual recognition platform to target advertising based on visual content instead of text.

-- MirriAd, a London-based start-up that seamlessly embeds advertising into video content, as if it were always there.

-- Ubitus, of Taipei, is a software platform provider for fixed mobile convergence applications.

-- Visuvi, of Redwood City, Calif., enables image search without any text required.

Highlights / Key Facts:

-- 'One To Watch' awards given to top five ECS companies based on: technology value, market opportunity and impact and 'wow' factor.

-- Awards include $15,000 in legal services from Cooley Godward Kronish LLP.

-- Selection committee included: Greg Clark, senior vice president of business development at Cooley Godward Kronish LLP; Andy Sheehan, managing director at Sutter Hill; Alain Tiquet, group marketing director at NVIDIA.

-- The second annual ECS, held from Sept. 30 to Oct. 2, brought together 475 attendees and featured presentations by 60 start-up companies from 15 countries, discussing how they utilize graphics processing units (GPUs) to deliver innovative solutions in areas ranging from cloud computing and computer vision to gaming and image processing.

-- Since it launched its GPU Ventures program in March 2009, NVIDIA is actively investing in new companies and offering others some pretty high-grade expertise, all in the name of building out GPU ecosystems.

Quotes:

-- "Our goal is to educate, nurture, support and inspire developers and emerging entrepreneurs to continue to develop applications for the GPU platform and we are truly pleased to recognize these five distinguished companies for their outstanding work. The ecosystem consists not only of the emerging companies that we hope to directly support through programs like the ECS, but also the VCs that fund these companies, the partners that work with them, and the customers that purchase products from them."
-Jeff Herbst, vice president of business development, NVIDIA

-- "IQ Engines has built a photo tagging engine, which labels images in near real-time. We believe that eventually, every cell phone camera will have visual intelligence. GPUs will be a key part of the solution for these parallel computationally intensive searches and we are honored to have been recognized for our technology."
-Gerry Pesavento, CEO, IQ Engines, Inc.

-- "With so many great companies present at this year's ECS, Milabra is very excited to have been recognized as 'One To Watch.'" Monetizing user generated visual media is an opportunity to add significant value to the online marketplace, and our ability to automatically contextualize visual media and serve relevant advertising to it would not be possible without the GPU."
-Sam Cox, CEO, Milabra

-- "With the vast majority of internet traffic destined to become video MirriAd had to develop a truly scalable platform capable to meet the future monetization needs of the content industry while delivering the perfection required by the professional video industries. MirriAd's platform and business model would not be possible without the GPU. Thanks NVIDIA for making our technology possible and for recognizing MirriAd as 'One To Watch.'"
-Mark Popkiewicz, CEO, MirriAd

-- "Our cloud computing solutions with GPU acceleration allows faster adoption of advanced features and service offerings for equipment manufacturers and network operators. Ultimately, end users are enabled to interconnect with information that means the most to them. We are honored to be recognized as 'One To Watch.'"
-Wesley Kuo, CEO, Ubitus

-- "As a visual query processing engine Visuvi relies heavily on graphic processing for indexing and search. The medical images we analyze in radiology and digital pathology can be up to 10 GB per file so the parallel processing capability using GPUs significantly improves analysis time in a cost-effective manner. We look forward to collaborating with NVIDIA and developing real-time medical image search and analytic solutions that will improve patient care and reduce healthcare costs."
-Chris Boone, CEO, Visuvi

Useful Links / Videos:

-- http://www.nvidia.com/object/gpu_tech_conf_emerging_companies_summit.html
-- http://www.iqengines.com/
-- http://www.milabra.com/
-- http://www.mirriad.com
-- http://www.ubitus.net/index.html
-- http://www.visuvi.com/
-- http://blogs.nvidia.com/gtc/
-- http://blogs.nvidia.com/nTersect/
-- http://www.youtube.com/user/nvidia

Tags / Keywords:

GPU Tech Conference, Emerging Companies Summit, GPU, NVIDIA, IQ Engines, Milabra, MotionDSP, Ubitus, Visuvi, computer vision, gaming, image processing, co-processing, parallel computing

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.

Certain statements in this press release including, but not limited to, statements as to: NVIDIA's investment in new companies; and our goals 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: changes in our investment strategy and goals 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.

Copyright 2009 NVIDIA Corporation. All rights reserved. NVIDIA and the NVIDIA logo are trademarks 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.

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For more information, contact:

Hector Marinez
NVIDIA Corporation
(408) 486-3443
hmarinez@nvidia.com

SOURCE: NVIDIA

mailto:hmarinez@nvidia.com