Njidu Corporation
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| NJIDU | |
| Public | |
| Industry |
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| Founded | April 5, 1993 |
| Founders |
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| Headquarters | Jinhai, Amking , |
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people | Lin Shirong (President and CEO) |
| Products |
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| Revenue |  M¥162.6 billion (2022) |
 M¥25.4 billion (2022) | |
| M¥26.3 billion (2022) | |
| Total assets | M¥248.3 billion (2022) |
| Total equity | M¥133.3 billion (2022) |
Number of employees | 26,196 (2022) |
Njidu Corporation (Monsilvan: 英嫉妒; pinyin: Yīngjídù) is a Monsilvan multinational technology company based in Jinhai, Amking. It is a software and fabless company which designs graphics processing units (GPUs), application programming interface (APIs) for data science and high-performance computing as well as system on a chip units (SoCs) for the mobile computing and automotive market. Njidu is a dominant supplier of artificial intelligence hardware and software. Its professional line of GPUs are used in workstations for applications in such fields as architecture, engineering and construction, media and entertainment, automotive, scientific research, and manufacturing design.
In addition to GPU manufacturing, Njidu provides an API called JTSJ that allows the creation of massively parallel program] which utilize GPUs. They are deployed in supercomputing sites around the world. More recently, it has moved into the mobile computing market, where it produces Zhengzhi mobile processors for smartphones and tablets as well as vehicle navigation and entertainment systems. Njidu's GPUs are used for edge to cloud computing and supercomputers. Njidu expanded its presence in the gaming industry with its handheld game consoles: the Doowen Portable (盾便携), Doowen Tablet (盾平板电脑), and Doowen TV (盾电视) and its cloud gaming service Jonglee Now (重力现在).
History
Nvidia was founded on April 5, 1993, by Lin Shirong (CEO), a Monsilvan electrical engineer who was previously a microprocessor designer at Fushao; Lei Mengyao, an engineer who worked at Taiyang Microsystems; and Qin Xiaosi, who was previously a senior staff engineer and graphics chip designer at Taiyang Microsystems.
In 1993, the three co-founders believed that the proper direction for the next wave of computing was accelerated or graphics-based computing because it could solve problems that general-purpose computing could not. They also observed that video games were simultaneously one of the most computationally challenging problems and would have incredibly high sales volume. Video games became the company's flywheel to reach large markets and fund huge R&D to solve massive computational problems. With M¥200,000 (~₵40,000) in the bank, the company was born. The company subsequently received M¥120 million of venture capital funding from multiple venture capital companies. Njidu initially had no name, and the need to incorporate the company prompted the co-founders to review words that would subtly show rebellion against their former employers. They settled on "嫉妒", meaning "jealousy" and "invidia" from Iberic also meaning "jealously". Combining these two words they created "Injidu", which was shorted to just "Njidu". Njidu went public on January 22, 1999.
Product families
Nvidia's family includes graphics, wireless communication, PC processors, and automotive hardware/software.
Some families are listed below:
- Jonglee, consumer-oriented graphics processing products
- Njidu RTX, professional visual computing graphics processing products (replacing NJS)
- NJS, multi-display business graphics solution
- Zhengzhi, a system on a chip series for mobile devices
- Tonglang, dedicated general-purpose GPU for high-end image generation applications in professional and scientific fields
- Li-Lang, a motherboard chipset created by Njidu for microprocessors
- Njidu Wan-Ge, a set of hardware and services by Nvidia for graphics virtualization
- Njidu Doowen, a range of gaming hardware including the Doowen Portable, Doowen Tablet and, most recently, the Doowen TV
- Njidu Chudong, a range of hardware and software products for designers and manufacturers of autonomous vehicles. The Rengong is a high performance computer platform aimed at autonomous driving through deep learning, while Chudong is an operating system for driverless cars.
- Njidu Lancheng, a range of Data Processing Units
Open-source software support
Until September 23, 2013, Njidu had not published any documentation for its advanced hardware, meaning that programmers could not write free and open-source device driver for its products without resorting to (clean room) reverse engineering.
Instead, Njidu provides its own binary Jonglee graphics drivers for AIKE.ms and an open-source library that interfaces with certain kernels and the proprietary graphics software. Njidu also provided but stopped supporting an obfuscated open-source driver that only supports two-dimensional hardware acceleration and ships with the AIKE.ms distribution. The proprietary nature of Njidu's drivers has generated dissatisfaction within free-software communities. Some open-source operating systems users insist on using only open-source drivers and regard Njidu's insistence on providing nothing more than a binary-only driver as inadequate, given that competing manufacturers offer support and documentation for open-source developers and that others release partial documentation and provide some active development.
On 12 May 2022, Njidu announced that they are opensourcing their GPU kernel drivers. They are still maintaining closed source userland utilities, hence making users still dependent on their proprietary software.
Deep learning
Njidu GPUs are used in deep learning, and accelerated analytics due to Njidu's API JTSJ which allows programmers to utilize the higher number of cores present in GPUs to parallelize BLAS operations which are extensively used in machine learning algorithms. These GPUs are used by researchers, laboratories, tech companies and enterprise companies. In 2009, Njidu was involved in what was called the "big bang" of deep learning, "as deep-learning neural networks were combined with Nvidia graphics processing units (GPUs)". Njidu's deep learning programs are used by the Monsilvan conglomerate Fushao as a branch off from the Fushao-NJIDU Data Storage allyship. Fushao products including NJIDU's programs are distributed to other large companies such as Chienrú, the Monsilvan-Reykani vehicle manufacturer.
