NVIDIA announces Tegra 2, tablets en route

By Nilay Patel

posted January 7th 2010 1:30PM

As expected, NVIDIA just announced Tegra 2, the next generation of its ARM-based Tegra platform. The new processor is a 40nm chip that's supposedly much lower power than Atom and even Snapdragon, and can still do full HD streaming and HDMI out. Supported OS's include Windows CE, Windows Mobile and Android, with Chrome OS on the drawing board -- "hundreds" of test systems are out there, and devs can order their own test units this month. It'll take a while before we see shipping production hardware, but NVIDIA says plenty of partners will be announcing Tegra 2 tablets with five to ten-inch touchscreens at CES. Why tablets and not smartbooks? Because consumers get confused when they see a keyboard and assume they're getting a full computer. Smart thinking, if you ask us. Oh, and this is interesting: there are some big wins with embedded systems in cars, so your next ride could be Tegra-powered. As for Tegra 1, it's still around and set to be a big part of some upcoming phones; we'll wait to see what happens on that front. PR after the break.

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New NVIDIA Tegra Processor Powers the Tablet Revolution

LAS VEGAS, NV--(Marketwire - January 7, 2010) - 2010 INTERNATIONAL CONSUMER ELECTRONICS SHOW (South Hall 4 - Booth #35912) -- NVIDIA today launched its Next Generation Tegra, the world's first processor for the mobile web, specifically designed for the high-resolution needs of tablets.

Consumers have been waiting for a truly portable, high-resolution, no-compromise Internet experience. NVIDIA's new Tegra processor delivers that by combining lightning-quick browsing, streaming 1080p video and Adobe® Flash® Player 10.1 acceleration with an immersive 3D user interface and days of battery life.

"Without question, 2010 is going to be year of the tablet," said Tim Bajarin, President, Creative Strategies, Inc. "The new NVIDIA Tegra processor has a unique feature set critical for tablets -- fast web browsing with fully rendered pages, uncompromised graphics, snappy user interface and HD video -- all with the battery life we've only seen with cell phones."

Key to Tegra's capabilities are eight independent processors, including the world's first dual core CPU for mobile applications. These processors are used together or independently to optimize power usage at all times. With its ultra low-power design, Tegra delivers over 16 hours of HD video or 140 hours of music -- on a single charge.(1)

Highlights / Key Facts:

Tegra is the power behind the new generation of tablets, offering:

o 3D touchscreen user interfaces
o Amazing battery life -- always-on and always-connected
o Adobe Flash Player 10.1 acceleration for streaming video and 3D mobile games
o Resolution ranging from four-to-eight times that of smartphones
o Form factors and screen sizes ranging from 5-15 inches
o Immersive gaming, vivid photos and video, and crystal-clear audio

Next Generation Tegra is a leap in mobile computing performance with:

o The world's first dual-core ARM Cortex A9 CPU running up to 1GHz
o Eight independent processors to handle web browsing, HD video encode and decode and mobile 3D gaming
o 10x faster than the processors used in smartphones today, and up to 4x the performance of the previous generation Tegra processor
o Advanced TSMC 40nm process with active power management

Next Generation Tegra is now in production. Developers can order the Tegra Developer Kit to create applications for Tegra-powered devices such as tablets, smartbooks and smartphones at developer.nvidia.com/tegra.

At CES 2010, NVIDIA is hosting many revolutionary new tablets that leverage the power of the next generation Tegra. Visit NVIDIA's booth in South Hall 4 #35912 to see the latest designs.