Nvidia Corp. on Monday said that it would enable its technology that allows to work several graphics cards in tandem on next-generation Intel Nehalem platform with the help of a separate chip. Potentially, the announcement means that Nvidia has failed to receive a license to develop and sell chipsets compatible with Intel’s next-gen platform.

Nvidia said that it would bring the SLI multi-GPU technology to Intel’s upcoming line of code-named Bloomfield central processing units (CPUs). With this combination, consumers be able to utilize one, two, or even three Nvidia GeForce graphics cards, including the new, GeForce GTX 280 and GTX 260 graphics products. However, makers of mainboards based on Intel X58 chipsets will have to install Nvidia nForce 200 chip to enable SLI, something, which indirectly indicates Nvidia’s failure to receive a license for Intel’s quick-path interconnect (QPI) bus.

“Our SLI technology allows us to combine the power of hundreds of GeForce processing cores in multi-GPU configurations with Intel’s latest CPUs for platforms that are sure to excite our customers.,” said Jeff Fisher, senior vice president of GPU business at Nvidia.

It is unclear how much more will Nvidia SLI-enabled mainboards will cost against the non-SLI brethren. What is clear is that Nvidia could not get QPI license from Intel Corp., something which may have substantial impact on the company.