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NVIDIA Enters the Mobile CPU Market

Posted by kdawson on from the or-should-we-say-mobile-gpu dept.

Vigile writes "NVIDIA just announced the new Tegra line, a complete system architecture on one chip. Built around a licensed x86 ARM 11 CPU, this tiny chip (smaller than a US dime) includes a processor, memory controller, southbridge, and 3D and video processors. The SoC design is meant to give iPhone-type devices a more impressive visual experiences while maintaining idle power consumption under 100 mW. While not a direct competitor to Intel's Atom or VIA's Nano processors, the NVIDIA Tegra will no doubt push the envelope in handhelds and cement NVIDIA's place in the world of computing going forward."

13 of 97 comments (clear)

  1. Not x86 by zsazsa · · Score: 5, Informative

    The article summary is wrong or has a typo or something. This is not on some weird hybrid x86/ARM platform; it's just ARM.

    1. Re:Not x86 by OrangeTide · · Score: 5, Funny

      Screw that, I will only buy an ARM if it's an x86 ARM. I need to run Vista, a computer is not a computer without Vista!!

      --
      “Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
    2. Re:Not x86 by jd · · Score: 5, Funny

      If it was an x86, it would be mostly 'armless.

      --
      It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
  2. Cat got your tongue? (something important seems to by DrunkenTerror · · Score: 5, Informative

    Ars had a good article about it

    Stupid lameness filter.

  3. Not x86 by larry+bagina · · Score: 5, Insightful

    oh yeah, kdawson. Go figure. From the article title: "Its not X86, but who cares?"

    --
    Do you even lift?

    These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.

  4. Dupe by Hektor_Troy · · Score: 5, Informative

    We had the exact same thing yesterday

    http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/06/02/1441214

    --
    We do not live in the 21st century. We live in the 20 second century.
    1. Re:Dupe by mrbluze · · Score: 5, Funny

      We had the exact same thing yesterday And you'll be getting it again tomorrow if you don't eat yer veggies!
      --
      Do it yourself, because no one else will do it yourself. [beta blockade 10-17 Feb]
    2. Re:Dupe by Dahamma · · Score: 5, Funny

      Not quite the exact same thing... this one is LESS accurate ;)

  5. WinCE... by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I am really hoping that they plan on expanding the lineup of supported operating systems. Obviously Windows is never going to happen, this being an ARM core; but Linux would be nice. In particular, Linux is pretty much the only way that this chip will have any shot of crawling out of the smartphone/PMP ghetto and making its way into general purpose small computers(I'd love to see a laptop built around something of this sort).

    Windows CE just isn't a very pleasant OS period, and its flaws really start to show once you get outside of the smartphone market, where at least it has some experience, or the thin-client market, where abject suck doesn't matter too much. Whether or not you like Linux or Windows better, you'd be hard pressed to argue that Windows CE is better for anything resembling a real computer. Unfortunately, given that this is Nvidia, and the chip looks tuned to "support premium content" I'm not going to be holding my breath. It's a pity, really. This setup looks rather cooler than Atom, and capable of some really fun stuff, but I'm not sure how good the odds are of it ever making its way into a mininotebook or small desktop form factor.

  6. OoO ?? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    "Modern cores come with OoO"... is that some weird new smiley or have they etched a copy of openoffice into the microcode prom?

    1. Re:OoO ?? by klingens · · Score: 5, Informative

      Out of Order execution

  7. Re:Don't underestimate ARM. by serviscope_minor · · Score: 4, Informative

    The point is that the EEE has sold many, many units running Linux. This demonstrates that people are prepared to accept Linux and therefore x86 is unnecessary since Linux does not require it.

    Linux being OK implies that x86 is unnecessary.

    --
    SJW n. One who posts facts.
  8. I don't think so. by EmbeddedJanitor · · Score: 4, Informative
    I've been a WinCE OS-level developer for quite a few years (since 1.0) and currently have the low level dev tools for WinCE6 on a PC.

    No SMP in sight, not even in the emulator. If you know differently, I'd like to know.

    --
    Engineering is the art of compromise.