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Nvidia Mulls Cheap, Integrated x86 Chip
CWmike writes "Nvidia is considering developing an integrated chip based on the x86 architecture for use in devices such as netbooks and mobile Internet devices, said Michael Hara, vice president of investor relations at Nvidia during a speech that was webcast from the Morgan Stanley Technology Conference this week. Nvidia has already developed an integrated chip called Tegra, which combines an Arm processor, a GeForce graphics core and other components on a single chip. The chips are aimed at small devices such as smartphones and MIDs, and will start shipping in the second half of this year. 'Tegra, by any definition, is a complete computer-on-chip, and the requirements of that market are such that you have to be very low power and very small but highly efficient,' Hara said. 'Someday, it's going to make sense to take the same approach in the x86 market as well.'"
It's being designed for netbooks, which aren't typically designed for gamers.
Fortunately, the one good thing that's come from Vista is that now almost all new computers come with decent graphics cards.
I hated looking for new laptops that were $800 and finding out they had integrated graphics, then being forced to pay for the "premium" product tier to get discrete graphics, which included a much more expensive processor and RAM.
With a desktop, you can just buy a $500 PC at Walmart and drop in a decent graphics card.
Tell me, if they announced an intention to do a SPARC core, would you assume they meant a 32-bit version? How about POWER?
x86 is just as 64-bit as they are.