Nvidia rolls out Tegra chips for tiny PCs

Duncan Martell

Nvidia Corp announced a processor line-up it believes will power a new class
of fast, small devices with long battery life that can surf the full Internet,
play high-end games and display high-definition video. The graphics chipmaker is
calling the Tegra 600 and Tegra 650 processors 'computers on a chip' for highly
portable, visual devices, and it is aiming squarely at a market also targeted by
chipmaker Intel Corp.

Nvidia hopes the Tegra chips, which also include its previously announced
application processor APX2500 used in smart­phones and handsets, will go into a
broad array of computing devices. But it's aiming first for an emerging category
called mobile Internet devices, or MIDs.

Intel was among the first to start bandying about the term, and its Atom
family of chips is targeted at MIDs. But Intel and Nvidia both say people are
still unsure exactly what a MID is. Nvidia says it is more than a dumbed-down
notebook PC or super-portable notebook with keyboards suited more for the hands
of Smurfs than humans.

Mike Rayfield, GM-Mobile Business, Nvidia said that MIDs have screens of four
to 12-inches in diameter and may have a touchscreen or keyboard, a connection
for a game controller or a wireless high-speed Internet connection.

"The systems now look more like dehydrated notebook computers," Rayfield
said.

But super-compact notebooks, smaller even than so-called ultra-mobile
personal computers (UMPCs), have already taken off. The Asus Eee PC has been a
runaway success, and Intel has said it would not be surprised to see sales of
what it calls Netbook PCs such as the Eee PC and others top 50 million by 2011.

Tegra chips have as their main electronic brain an ARM 11 central processing
unit core, a graphics-processing unit, a media processor, system memory and
peripherals in one ultra-low power-consuming chip smaller than a dime, Rayfield
said.

The graphics chipmaker is calling the Tegra 600 and Tegra 650 processors 'computers on a chip' for highly portable, visual devices

Turfwar

Rayfield said that while customers are lining up to use the chips in gizmos they
are designing, they are not yet willing to disclose their plans. But at a major
trade show this week called Computex, he said he would not be surprised to see
Taiwanese gadget makers and others let slip a few details.

"By the end of the week, we'll see people talking about the fact that they're
designing products around this technology. All the initial products will come
out of Taiwan; they're the fastest to market, " Rayfield said.

He said prices for MIDs with Tegra would range from $200 to $250 and be on
store shelves by the holiday shopping season.

"If you're looking for performance and good graphics capabilities and the
ability of this thing to play HD video and the like, that's pretty cool stuff,
"said Nathan Brookwood, Analyst, Insight 64.

Nvidia's push with Tegra and Intel's own efforts with Atom foreshadow a
battle between two types of chip architectures for dominance in the nascent
tiny-but-powerful comp­uting market.

The Atom chip family uses its x86 architecture, while ARM Holdings Plc
processors have their own. Intel claims ARM chips grew up out of the
communications and cell-phone markets, insisting its x86 architecture is better
suited for computing applications such as gaming and Web browsing.

"ARM is coming from a position of having built the best performance-per-milliwatt
devices for the last 10 years or more," he said. "I'm very comfortable that it's
a battle being fought on their turf," Rayfield added.

Insight 64's Brookwood said of the x86-versus-ARM battle that it'll be
interesting to watch how it plays out.