NVIDIA's Tegra in the flesh, booting to Android and pumping out 1080p video

NVIDIA really has a technical wonder in the Tegra APX 2600 chipset, and is more than happy to show it off, with a myriad of tech demos on display here at MWC. Some of this they showed off back in June of last year, but it's no less impressive -- there aren't really any mobile devices out there capable of this stuff right now. Still, we're here for the new, and NIVIDA showed up with Android running on one of its proof-of-concept units, and with another unit pumping out 1080p video, with a claimed 10 hours of battery life at that task. NVIDIA says it took them just a few weeks to port Android to the system, and we found it already quite snappy and even usable on the capacitive touchscreen-ed device. We also saw the forthcoming Android-running Yulong N8 and IAC S2 Tegra APX phones, along with an untitled CompalCom set -- they were all in non-working prototype form, but it's clear this chipset isn't just for MIDs. Check it all out in the videos after the break and the gallery below!

Gallery: NVIDIA's Tegra in the flesh

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[Marco @ Feb 17th 2009 10:12AM]

And what is the difference with the Zii chip from Ziilabs?

[iphonerulez @ Feb 17th 2009 12:29PM]

Is it true that after you use this handset and put it in your pants it will set them on fire?

[Deeznuts420 @ Feb 17th 2009 12:35PM]

liar liar

[Varuna @ Feb 17th 2009 4:11PM]

Marco,

Well although this is nice and impressive, the Ziilabs ZMS 05 is capable of much more than that. Remember ZiiLabs Zii chip is flexible and programmable to anything you want to do.
ONE of the demonstrated capabilities was the HD video showed at the previous post.
Therefore, its not tied to just Video processing.
What I would like to see is how the Tegra matches with the Zii in power consumption based on the same task.
Another thing to notice is how the Zii does multiple things and mostly more than the Tegra. Creative have already paired up with OEMs and hopefully we can get some more comparisons around them both.
So I think the Zii is a bit more of a win here.

[Shinigami @ Feb 19th 2009 11:56AM]

@Varuna
They just showed Zii a little while ago while Nvidia was shown a year ago and is a perfectly working device, though big as a brick (a real brick, not a big phone or WinMo communicator). I think that brick is a reference platform in a piece of plastic.

I'd love to see Zii vs Tegra some time soon but something tells me we won't see Zii in actual devices till 2010 while Tegra is promised to appear as soon as mid-2009 (by Nvidia's words).

[John Deuf @ Feb 17th 2009 10:25AM]

I think that microsoft (will) give money to Samsung and LG in order to avoid much more Android systems like this one.

[Venom16 @ Feb 17th 2009 10:17AM]

Dear Jesus,

I know there was a time I didn't believe in you.
I'm sorry, you've made made a believer now.

Now please make the nice man put it into a cheap tablet pc before I graduate.

Ttyl

[bender @ Feb 17th 2009 12:29PM]

wasnt jesus. sorry

[Seneca @ Feb 17th 2009 1:16PM]

You sure have a funny way of spelling Jen-Hsun.

[Adam @ Feb 17th 2009 10:17AM]

I wanted this phone since I saw it months back!

can't wait to see what it can do!

[webon @ Feb 17th 2009 10:34AM]

its not a phone its a chipset

[fieldcar @ Feb 17th 2009 10:47AM]

looks like a phone to me... jk...
everyone who has eWood over this has it because of nVidia's powerful chipset.

[Kurian @ Feb 17th 2009 11:50AM]

iPhone buttraped.

[adam @ Feb 17th 2009 3:49PM]

like an altar-boy

[Shyam D @ Feb 17th 2009 10:18AM]

Well the mobile device sector is definitely going to start heating up now. Now all we need is a real competitor for ARM.

[Mano @ Feb 17th 2009 10:28AM]

Are there any ARM competitors left? Renesas offers chips with similar functionality
(and IMHO superior processing power at equal clockrates with the SH-Mobile line)
but outside of Japan they're essentially unknown; and the surviving MIPS users
have focussed on networking instead (Cavium, Broadcom, ...). The only other MIPS
user I know with a "Mobile-y" featureset (the Alchemy line) is a generation behind
in terms of features.

[bhtooefr @ Feb 17th 2009 10:47AM]

Well, Intel's trying to get Atom's platform power down to the ARM range, but the problem is, Cortex-A8 gets the PROCESSING power up where it's harder for the low-power Atom models (stuff like the Z500 and such) to compete on speed, and the A8 is better on power, too.

[Macdelaney @ Feb 17th 2009 1:25PM]

There's a Dual Core ARM now.

[absinthe party @ Feb 17th 2009 3:53PM]

Listen... I've had dual arms for years. The only things that could replace these babies are chainsaws or machineguns, not some new-fangled computing device.

[Ike Turner @ Feb 17th 2009 10:22AM]

Same old demo as last year's MWC. nVidia's going to have a hard time against Qualcomm. Not a single Handset with Tegra devices announced after one year of hype...

[TareX @ Feb 17th 2009 2:23PM]

Actually at the last MWC, they said the first Tegra devices won't be before 18 months, which means they are right on schedule for a summer 09 release.

Everyone is planning their top phones around the iPhone (HD?) release.

[Ike Turner @ Feb 17th 2009 6:28PM]

No they said (and it was plastered all over their website and pdfs wich I still have) that the first Tegra devices will be available buy the end of 2008. Now it's changed to mid-2009 and still no announcement in sight. So that's more than 6 months late.

[scott baker @ Feb 17th 2009 10:25AM]

I get the impression that manufactures are scared of this and the Ion platform. Both of them make a lot of much higher priced stuff instantly obsolete. I hope I'm wrong and we see the Tegra and the Ion coming out soon.

[Ike Turner @ Feb 17th 2009 10:31AM]

We are probably going to see lots of IO design wins in the coming months IMO. Tegra? not so much. Why go for Tegra (ARM11 cpu/fpu+nVidia GPU only) when you can get SnapDragon (ARM11cpu/fpu+AtiGPU+IO+3Gradio+GPS etc).

[TareX @ Feb 17th 2009 10:45AM]

Ike turner:

- Tegra is much lower power. Incomparably lower power.
- Tegra renders 3D graphics a lot better, take a look at the Toshiba's Snapdragon gaming video, and choppy 3D UI, even though -on paper- Snapdragon is faster.

While snapdragon was struggling to render the choppy 3D transitions on the new Toshiba phone, Tegra has no problem rendering the Opera browser in 3D waves while scrolling.... it's really incomparable performance.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0U_Zzcwc10

[Ike Turner @ Feb 17th 2009 10:51AM]

Just shill and stop believing nVidia's PR hype for a second. And please don't compare a real product (TG01) and nVidia's protoype.
So far Tegra is jsut hype and nothing else. Or maybe you just work for nVidia...

[Wishmaster @ Feb 17th 2009 11:05AM]

Actually snapdragon has ARMv7 based CPU. It is called scorpion and is something in between cortexA8 and A9. It combines integer performance of cortex A8 and A9 floating point performance thanks to 128bit NEON instructions. If everything should go right snapdragon should offer better CPU performance than competing A8 based SoC's until A9 comes with OoOE.

Considering that nvidias show off UI is just a custom made skin/application for winCE I wouldn't expect similar performance on winmo. It serves it cause and toshiba's device is probably totally not optimised for hardware graphic acceleration yet so I wouldn't judge its performance until we see final version/revision.

[loosely_coupled @ Feb 18th 2009 3:46AM]

SNAPDRAGON IS BASED ON ARM CORTEX-A8, NOT ARM11!

Although the Nvidia Tegra may have an excellent GPU bult-in, the PowerVR SGX is more than capable, and why would you want a dual-core ARM11 when the Cortex-A8 is already out and Cortex-A9 on the way in a year.

[Jim @ Feb 17th 2009 10:25AM]

Does anyone know if you can buy one of these devices anywhere?

[osuivan @ Feb 17th 2009 10:54AM]

"Still, we're here for the new, and NIVIDA showed up with Android running on one of its proof-of-concept units"

I'm going to take a stab at this and say you can NOT buy them any where.

[Temo @ Feb 17th 2009 10:27AM]

are we going to have a massive heat sink and fans to cool this thing down?

[N3TWORK BURN3R @ Feb 17th 2009 10:38AM]

LOL!!

[TareX @ Feb 17th 2009 10:35AM]

OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD.

It's happening.

[wywywywy @ Feb 17th 2009 10:40AM]

No not yet. :(

[TareX @ Feb 17th 2009 10:41AM]

Here's a MUCH MORE IMPRESSIVE Tegra demo:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0U_Zzcwc10

It's months old, but a lot smoother and you can see how powerful it is when it 3D renders Opera browser while scrolling... crazy

[scott baker @ Feb 17th 2009 10:42AM]

Wouldn't it be really cool if your phone had the processor and memory of a PC? You could bring it home, put in a docking station and run your monitor, keyboard, and mouse with just the phone. Or you could have the laptop that is just a docking station for your phone (like in the video).

We almost have the technology now but again it would undermine the PC business. PC makers are already struggling to make money. To me this doesn't make sense for overall growth and profits of a company. I hope we see all of this soon anyway though.

[webon @ Feb 17th 2009 10:42AM]

well there you go, that laptop mid/phone integration is just what i need, i mean y usually need a bt keyboard and would love a bt display for my phone, integrating it with a laptop looks pretty cool, and if someone could come up with a way to be able to switch between the laptops interface and the phones in the same screen that would be even better

[TT @ Feb 17th 2009 10:48AM]

Now let's hope the manufacterers can put a nice shell arounds this chip before my contract expires.

[Tubalcain @ Feb 17th 2009 10:50AM]

I don't know, Android seems like a good OS but if it wants to compete with WebOS, Mobile OS X, etc. its gonna need some flashier icons and I would like to see more devices and carriers before taking a plunge. I've been hearing about tegra for a while now.

[TT @ Feb 17th 2009 10:54AM]

Nvidia will probably (/hopefully) take the Tegra UI to Android as well...

[scott baker @ Feb 17th 2009 11:11AM]

I think you're going to keep hearing about it and not actually seeing it.

[TareX @ Feb 17th 2009 11:59AM]

I agree. The Android icons are far too "toyish", and generally ugly. But again, it's FREE.

But yeah I would love future porters to modify it JUST A BIT to look better. It won't cost a lot, and it's open source so this could be the easiest skin ever.

[ronald.raygun @ Feb 17th 2009 2:21PM]

a much better theme for android, just look at the pics

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=482799

[Ntafy @ Feb 17th 2009 10:52AM]

OK, it's official: I'm inlove.

Hope they release sometime sooner than Q3 tho... :(

[Sven Vollstag @ Feb 17th 2009 11:34AM]

...so creative does this with the zii...
...and its 'not very impressive'...
...and nvidia does it with a less capable chip and engadget creams its pants...
...hmm...
...whats the word to describe engadgets bias...
...oh thats right...
...doucherific...

[TT @ Feb 17th 2009 12:07PM]

Notice however, that although the Zii can do stuff like this, it's much bigger.
Yes, there are versions of the Zii that are just as big as this, but we haven't seen any real footage of those.
(Don't believe me? Just look at the videos of it and look at the board that's powering it...)

[Wesley @ Feb 17th 2009 12:17PM]

Yeah, nice video, now release some phones to the public already, please!!!

I'm not too sure about Android being so great. It's supposed to be free, so is much cheaper for manufacturers to use, but what about the T-mobile G1, it was and still is damn expensive like the rest of the top smartphones and for the same cash, I bought the best netbook on the planet - Asus N10J with vista, xp, external dvd +-\Rw, Nvidia Geforce 9300, 8 hour battery life, 2 year warranty, 250GB hard drive and lots more. These damn phones are overpriced, no wonder the manufacturers did so bad last year.

IMO the ui of Android sux, when is someone going to put their own one on top of Android like most of the best Winmo phones.

As for the ziilabs chip, looks similar spec to tegra, but nowhere is there performance figures like mhz/ghz and the graphics are probably not as good as tegra's.

[NickP @ Feb 17th 2009 12:29PM]

Blah blah... EVERY trade show I go to NVIDIA shows Tegra, with NO design wins and a price point to handset mfr's that keep most away. NVIDIA's mobile phone team can design a good chip but they can't bloody well sell it NOR get any Design Wins. Jensen needs to hire some real handset chipset guys not some crack in desktop GPU guys (and yes I've met their sales team - bunch of idiots who just don't listen to ANY of the handset mfr's)

[iphonerulez @ Feb 17th 2009 12:38PM]

What's really amusing is that they're trying to build handsets that are probably more powerful than netbooks. Nothing wrong with that, but I think some companies are getting just a wee bit carried away with this computer/cellphone in your pocket concept.

Great idea to have a device that you can pull out and hook up to your HDTV to play videos or games.

[Hamidxa @ Feb 17th 2009 2:04PM]

Getting carried away?

You are arguing against more power, even when they say they can pull 10 hours off playing HD content or games with this chip?
Are you kidding me?

Thank God the devices coming out this year are leaving behind the iPhones of yesteryear in the dust where they belong.