The huge, important company you've maybe never heard of

My good friend and former editor Brian Caulfield wrote a kickass cover story for this week's issue of Forbes. His subject: graphics chipmaker Nvidia.

I admit it. I'd never heard of the company. I'm no gamer, and so have never had the urge to cram extra graphics chips into my computer. But now I am enlightened. I know, for example, that without their "brawny" microchips, we'd have "no high-definition Web video, no visual kick from battling aliens in the lush digital forests of the Crysis game."

Turns out this same technology is being used by scientists to understand the neurological structure of the brain, and could have a number of other real life applications.

As the article shows, Nvidia is a robust company that has been grabbing market share from its chief rival, ATI. What amazed me is the company's 46 percent gross margins. So, it's not just gamers that know its name--Wall Street has rewarded Nvidia with 34 percent rise in stock price over the past year. Nice.