Certain notebook configurations of these MCP and GPU products are failing in the field at higher than normal rates. While we have not been able to determine a root cause for these failures, testing suggests a weak material set of die/package combination, system thermal management designs, and customer use patterns are contributing factors. We have worked with our customers to develop and have made available for download a software driver to cause the system fan to begin operation at the powering up of the system and reduce the thermal stress on these chips. We have also recommended to our customers that they consider changing the thermal management of the MCP and GPU products in their notebook system designs. We intend to fully support our customers in their repair and replacement of these impacted MCP and GPU products that fail, and their other efforts to mitigate the consequences of these failures.



   We continue to engage in discussions with our supply chain regarding reimbursement to us for some or all of the costs we have incurred and may incur in the future relating to the weak material set. We also continue to seek to access our insurance coverage, which provided us with $8.0 million in related reimbursement during fiscal year 2009.  However, there can be no assurance that we will recover any additional reimbursement. We continue to not see any abnormal failure rates in any systems using NVIDIA products other than certain notebook configurations. However, we are continuing to test and otherwise investigate other products. There can be no assurance that we will not discover defects in other MCP or GPU products.        



   In September, October and November 2008, several putative class action lawsuits were filed against us, asserting various claims related to the impacted MCP and GPU products.  Please refer to Note 12 of the Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements in Part IV, Item 15 of this Form 10-K for further information regarding this litigation.

 

   Common Stock

 

   At the Annual Meeting of Stockholders held on June 19, 2008, our stockholders approved an increase in our authorized number of shares of common stock to 2,000,000,000. The par value of our common stock remained unchanged at $0.001 per share.



Dependence on PC market



   We derive and expect to continue to derive the majority of our revenue from the sale or license of products for use in the desktop PC and notebook PC markets, including professional workstations. A reduction in sales of PCs, or a reduction in the growth rate of PC sales, may reduce demand for our products.  Changes in demand for our products could be large and sudden.  During fiscal year 2009, sales of our desktop GPU products decreased approximately 29% compared to fiscal year 2008. These decreases were primarily due to the Standalone Desktop and Standalone Notebook GPU market segment decline as reported in the PC Graphics December 2008 Report from Mercury Research.  Since PC manufacturers often build inventories during periods of anticipated growth, they may be left with excess inventories if growth slows or if they incorrectly forecast product transitions. In these cases, PC