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nVidia Preview 'Tegra' MID Platform

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the fits-in-the-something-of-your-something dept.

wild_berry writes "nVidia have previewed their Mobile Internet Device platform which will be officially unveiled at Computex in the next few days. The platform features CPU's named Tegra paired with nVidia chipset and graphics technology. Tegra is a system-on-a-chip featuring an ARM 11 core and nVidia's graphics technologies permitting 1080p HiDef television decode and OpenGL ES 2.0 3D graphics. Engadget's page has more details, such as the low expected price ($199-249), huge battery life (up to 130 hours audio/30 hours HD video) and enough graphics power to render Quake3 anti-aliased at 40FPS."

10 of 117 comments (clear)

  1. Imagine a Beowulf-Cluster... by Kokuyo · · Score: 3, Interesting

    But seriously, this sounds interesting. If they actually manage to pull it off, this might actually make TV on the go a real possibility (compared to strain your neck trying to watch Sex and the City on your phone...).

    Now the only question is, how heavy is the battery to allow for such a long lasting device. You can't tell me it actually is this efficient, if it boasts that kind of computational power.

  2. Worth waiting for... by LinuxGeek · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I almost bought an Asus EEE pc this weekend, this is worth waiting to see how it is implemented in consumer devices. Give me a small laptop type that can run linux and I'll buy one or two. Heck, 30 or 40 hours would be enough battery time, don't need 100.

    --

    Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see. - Mark Twain
  3. Re:Sounds like the same advertising from the EEE.. by Svartalf · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Patience...

    Pandora comes...and it is looking like it's going to largely deliver on the "promises" it makes.

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  4. Re:Yer! ARM laptop by zeromorph · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Yes, looks like a new round in the CISC (now represented by Intel Atom) vs. RISC (now represented by Tegra) flame war. Ars Teechnica had an interesting article about the new relevance of the differences of the two architectures two weeks ago.

    --
    "Hannibal's plans never work right. They just work." Amy/A-Team
  5. Re:Yer! ARM laptop by Scootin159 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Interesting that they say it has 'enough graphics power to render Quake 3 @ 40fps'... does Quake 3 actually run on any non win/x86 platform?

  6. Re:Vista by neokushan · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Vista doesn't have an ARM version, you'll have to stick with Windows mobile for now.
    However, TFA states (that's right, I actually read it) that nVidia is open to running other platforms, not just windows CE, so if enough interest is generated, they MIGHT actually have Linux running on it.
    It's a chipset, though, not a device or anything so ultimately it would be up to the mobile manufacturers to decide what happens, providing nVidia has support for it.

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  7. Re:Quake3 anti-aliased at 40FPS by eebra82 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Sounds like an interesting toy, but aren't we twisting the measurements a bit here? Quake 3 came out in 1999. Any modern graphic chip has the graphics power to render Q4 at much faster than 40 FPS. You are missing the point. It's not as much about how fast it can run Quake 3, but rather that it is capable of doing so reasonably well. You cannot compare it to modern graphics engines simply because this is a processor that promises to deliver reasonable performance at incredibly low voltages.

    As for the resolution, I agree that it's rather strange that they left out the details on this, but we can assume that it's going to be something like 640x400, which is still very impressive.
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  8. PowerVR vs. nVidia by DrYak · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The PowerVR vs. nVidia comparison is approximately the same as the ARM vs. Intel Atom.

    nVidia are producing classical graphic cores.

    PowerVR are employing specific techniques (Tile-Based Deferred rendering) which enable them to cram the same performance using a lot less transistors and running at lower clocks.

    The nVidia SoC is probably more targeted toward sub-notebooks, big multimedia PDAs (As a example, the TapWave Zodiac was based on an ARM and an ATI Imageon running PalmOS 5) and small internet-enabled appliances.

    Smart Phone will probably use whatever is less power hungry and go for PowerVR's designs.

    --
    "Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
  9. Re:Sounds like the same advertising from the EEE.. by AnyoneEB · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Except Pandora promises at best a third the battery life. Then again, Pandora is due out very soon, and reading about both it sounds like Pandora is the type of machine nVidia would expect Tegra to be used in.

    --
    Centralization breaks the internet.
  10. Re:Quake3 anti-aliased at 40FPS by Bert64 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    A networkable quake3 that you can play over wifi with random people on the train would be fun.
    Infact, a phone with enough power to play good multiplayer games, wifi, the ability to auto detect other devices within range, and most importantly the ability to remote boot games from other users (so you dont need to rely on finding people with the same games) would be awesome...
    Just imagine the commute to work, and finding random other people on the train to play games with.

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