Next Nintendo Handheld To Be Powered By NVIDIA's Tegra Chipset

Vigile writes "When you sell over 100 million handheld gaming systems, everyone wants to be involved in your success; just ask Nintendo. As a company with many different obstacles in its path, NVIDIA could definitely use the boost in revenues that would come from partnering with a company like Nintendo on a handheld system, and it looks like the Tegra processor will make that happen. The NVIDIA Tegra processor is an SoC that runs a set of ARM cores, a GeForce-based graphics core and an HD video processor capable of 1080p output that would definitely give the current Nintendo DS/DSi systems a performance boost in line with the Sony PSP. The 'Nintendo TS,' as it has been dubbed, will apparently be ready for a late winter 2010 release and should put a spark in the mobile gaming market and give Nintendo's developers the power to bring higher quality games to the platform."

Comments

Zelda!

[Anonymous Coward]

Hell yea next Zelda DS game in 1080p!

Re:Zelda!

[hattig]

More likely two screens of 480x320 to 640x480, with 4xAA and decent filtering.

Unless they're dumping the dual-screen concept, but it's worked well so far.

Re:Zelda!

[Anonymous Coward]

TS, not DS.
Three screens, woohoo!

But my only worry now is battery life.
Are we to expect to see the Nintendo logo then power off?
Are we to even SEE the logo? It'll be like turning it on, light flashes and off.
Damn you Nintendo~, DAMN YOU~

Re:Zelda!

[Toonol]

Which is MORE than enough for a handheld. There's no reason to pack in 1600x1080 resolution into a screen that's four inches across.

On a handheld, priorities are different than a home console. In addition to the obvious (like low power consumption), I would think resolution would pale in importance to other things like offloading physics or better compression or procedural generation of textures, to counteract the restricted processor/memory.

TS?

[sleeponthemic]

I'll wait for the screener.

Re:But will it run Linux?

[tepples]

...And will we be able to play SuperTux?

Not on the TS. Nintendo doesn't associate with amateurs or semiprofessionals. Seriously. If you want to run Linux on a gaming PDA, get a Pandora once it comes out.

That was fast

[FlyingBishop]

Nvidia's getting out of the chipset market so fast they're actually releasing new products already.

Re:That was fast

[TheRaven64]

Uh, what? Tegra was announced over a year ago and has been shipping for a while in the Zune.

So when can we expect 1080p on the Wii?

[tomhudson]

That's the *real* question. 1080p makes a bigger difference when hooked up to a big-screen TV than it will in a tiny hand-held.

Cell

[mbrod]

Would be nice if they also made this a GSM unlocked cell phone. So one could use it as a pre-pay cell phone as well.

Wondering about other specs

[the_scoots]

I wonder if they'll "upgrade" it like the PSP so you can get to repurchase your older games through DLC?

Re:Flashcards

[tomhudson]

Who cares, I'm waiting to pirate the games. Fuck you nintendo.

me@slashdot > --gamemode
SLASHGAME: YOU ARE STANDING IN A FIELD
SLASHGAME: LOOK NORTH
SLASHGAME: YOU SEE AN ANONYMOUS COWARD
SLASHGAME: WALK NORTH
SLASHGAME: THE ANONYMOUS COWARD GREETS YOU BY SAYING "FUCK YOU NINTENDO"
SLASHGAME: INVENTORY
SLASHGAME: YOU HAVE 2 COOKIES
SLASHGAME: QUERY COOKIES
SLASHGAME: COOKIE #1 IS COOKIE WITH POWER OF SU
SLASHGAME: COOKIE #2 IS COOKIE OF APPLE POWER
SLASHGAME: DROP COOKIE WITH POWER OF SU
SLASHGAME: YOU DROP THE COOKIE WITH POWER OF SU
SLASHGAME: ANONYMOUS COWARD PICKS UP COOKIE WITH POWER OF SU
SLASHGAME: IN SOVIET UNION, COOKIE EATS ANONYMOUS COWARD
SLASHGAME: EXIT
me@slashdot >

The street doesn't believe it

[afidel]

On a day where most of the microchip stocks are up on good Intel earnings NVDA is down.

Open it, and make it a phone

[MobyDisk]

Portable game systems are now competing with cell phones. Nintendo needs to realize that for their next portable game system or it will be limited to elementary and middle school kids. Beyond that age, they want a PDA / cell phone.

Granted, there are some big limitations to a cell phone as a gaming platform. The DS and DSi are much cheaper than the iPhone or even the iPod touch, and they have better control inputs. But that may change with future phones, especially Android phones.

The next DS also needs to be open to developers. That is a huge market that Nintendo missed. I know kids who have hacked DS's because they not only get games, but they get a scheduler, dictionary, and Wikipedia. Had Nintendo sold basic PDA functionality then the DS would have widened it's market. It is amazing how big the homebrew community is. I doubt that the homebrew community will spend the effort to reverse-engineer the next Nintendo hand-held when they could buy a cheap, open cell phone for the same price.

We are really seeing hand-held device convergence. I know people who don't carry a watch any longer because they have a cell phone. Nintendo needs to widen their thinking.

Re:Open it, and make it a phone

[Aladrin]

Right, because nobody over the age of 12 owns a DS...

Wait, no. That's not right. I have one, and so does my: Mother, father, sister, both nephews... That's just off the top of my head, and only people actually related to me by blood. My youngest niece owns one, too, but she's actually under 12, so...

Re:Open it, and make it a phone

[richy freeway]

I doubt that the homebrew community will spend the effort to reverse-engineer the next Nintendo hand-held when they could buy a cheap, open cell phone for the same price.

I think you're REALLY underestimating the homebrew communities. They'll hack it just because they can.

Re:Open it, and make it a phone

[HaZardman27]

Nintendo needs to widen their thinking.

I think the DSi proves that they have already begun to do so. If any of the three big game companies (Nintendo, Sony & Microsoft) have proven that they can reach the casual/mainstream audience, it's Nintendo. All they really have left to do is cut out their idiotic fear of the internet.

To Be Powered By NVIDIA's Tegra Chipset

[Eideteker]

And, you know, batteries.

Zune HD has the Tegra

[bertoelcon]

The Zune HD has a Tegra too. NVIDIA wasn't gonna die until the Zune HD got discontinued or got a different chipset.

Blades, motor

[RyuuzakiTetsuya]

It would be great if it came with a motor and hooked up to a set of blades, it would be really useful as a stick blender and possibly a desk fan. Just make sure you have the plastic blades hooked up for that mode.

So the next DS will

[Anonymous Coward]

have more graphics power than the current Wii?

Re:Flashcards

[Red Flayer]

Ok, very funny. Snorting embarrassingly funny.

But I have to know... it's killing me...

What does the cookie with the power of apple do?

Re:But will it run Linux?

[ak3ldama]

If it ever ends up coming out.

Their status page looks pretty close. This thing actually sounds very cool, a sort of netbook (plus gaming hand held!) that a linux geek would be able to settle for. The type of thing that still works to lounge around in bed on a winter morning and just cruise the net. Thanks to gp for mentioning this as I had not heard of it, yet had considered getting the previous GP2X in the past. Does anyone have an idea of the cost of this thing?

Re:Flashcards

[mrdoogee]

75% of what a normal cookie does, at 2x the price!

BAZINGA!

I keed of course... I even posted this from my MacBook.

Re:photo

[surferx0]

Gawd that's ugly. Why not integrate the buttons into the main body. It seriously looks like a maxi pad. I hope this is just the rumor mill at work.

While probably not a reliable concept picture of the new device, the reason for the buttons being separated from the screen body is because this is supposed to show us slide/twist design where the screen can be turned to portrait mode for DS games and then turned to landscape mode and slid upwards like a typical cell phone design for TS games.

Although for that design to work the buttons would have to be nearly flush to the device to not interfere with the sliding screen. While that's fine for the ABXY buttons, a flush D-pad would be kind of ridiculous. Again, probably not real.

Wait, you mean...

[default luser]

For once I can play a 3D game on a Nintendo portable and not be limited to 2000 polygons in a scene, and not be limited to shitty point-sample for texture filtering?

Hurray, we can finally have REAL 3D games on the DS, instead of crappy-looking 2D/3D hybrids!

The power consumption is also quite reasonable (Zune HD can do 8.5 hours video playback, and that stresses the GPU core and OLED screen), so it sounds plausible for Nintendo to sign-on.

Never

[mrchaotica]

The Wii will never have 1080p; Nintendo will make you buy the next console for that.

Re:Never

[Carewolf]

The Wii will never have 1080p; Nintendo will make you buy the next console for that.

The Wiii?

Graphics and quality are largely unrelated.

[ChaosDiscord]

"...and give Nintendo's developers the power to bring higher quality games to the platform."

Any developer that thinks the thing stopping them from delivering higher quality games is more powerful graphics hardware has no hope of delivering high quality games.

Re:Graphics and quality are largely unrelated.

[ChaosDiscord]

I've always thought it was a shame that Rembrandt didn't have access to Photoshop; it would have enabled him to make higher quality art. And the quality of Bach's work really suffered since he lacked access to synthesizers and theremins. And I guess Casablanca is pretty good, but clearly its quality suffered for lacking the options of widescreen, color, and 3d.

Re:Graphics and quality are largely unrelated.

[brkello]

So, you are saying the 8-bit Nintendo is all we ever needed. That's the argument you are making and it is stupid. A more capable system allow for better graphics that can give a more immersive environment as well as having improved AI or capabilities. Every retard knows that better graphics != a better game. But it seems counter intuitive to people on here that increasing the hardware specs can give a developer more options to create a deeper game.

Any artist can make great art with the tools of their time. But you seem to argue against improving those tools...that the tools we have now are good enough. Could you really have Half-Life or Mass Effect or Bioshock on an 8-bit Nintendo? Maybe, but it would not be as fun because it would be so limited. It would be like telling Mozart that all he could use is a tuba and a triangle.

Re:Graphics and quality are largely unrelated.

[ookaze]

So, you are saying the 8-bit Nintendo is all we ever needed. That's the argument you are making and it is stupid.

No, actually that's YOUR stupid argument.
He is saying that 8-bit Nintendo game were still quality games, and you're saying they can't be.
That's a very stupid argument to make, when the 8-bit Nintendo games still sell well on Virtual Console on the Wii.

A more capable system allow for better graphics that can give a more immersive environment as well as having improved AI or capabilities.

Yes, but a less powerful system allows for exactly the same things.

Every retard knows that better graphics != a better game. But it seems counter intuitive to people on here that increasing the hardware specs can give a developer more options to create a deeper game.

Experience has shown that the counter intuitive thing is the correct one.
What you're saying is true in a vacuum, but in real life, there's a thing called money that prevents you from reaching your utopia.

Any artist can make great art with the tools of their time. But you seem to argue against improving those tools...that the tools we have now are good enough. Could you really have Half-Life or Mass Effect or Bioshock on an 8-bit Nintendo? Maybe, but it would not be as fun because it would be so limited. It would be like telling Mozart that all he could use is a tuba and a triangle.

So much BS. How do you know it would not be as fun because it would be so limited?
Artists always manage to manage past the limitations of their tools, that's creativity. Because you're unable of being creative enough to bypass the tools' limitations doesn't mean nobody can.
That's this mindset that made Sony, MS, and nearly everyone in the game industry dismiss Nintendo as irrelevant this generation, only to be destroyed. The game industry is not technology industry: having less powerful hardware doesn't prevent you to succeed, at all.
Seems like lots of people still have not understood that the game industry is not a technology industry: it's entertainment.
The same entertainment industry where it doesn't matter if your movie is in mono, black and white, or other "limited" technology, if the content is better. That's why the Nintendo DS is cleaning it up, despite being "limited".
Thus why the OP is plain wrong in thinking that more power will bring more quality.

Re:photo

[BigHungryJoe]

are those wings on the sides for ultra-absorbency during "heavy flow" days?

Rumors, damn it. RUMORS!

[Tarlus]

Slashdot:
"Next Nintendo Handheld To Be Powered By NVIDIA's Tegra Chipset"

The Actual Article:
"NVIDIA Tegra rumored to be included in new Nintendo handheld"

RTFA and be a little less misleading, Slashdot.

Re:But will it run Linux?

[KDR_11k]

The first 90% of the work take 90% of the time, the remaining 10% of the work take the other 90% of the time.

Re:Will it still have 2 screens?

[SleazyRidr]

Fuck everything! We're doing five screens!