NVIDIA Tegra Processor

NVIDIA has done very well for itself over the past decade. While most of the world can recognize the chip-maker for its popular GeForce product line, very few might realize that this green-machine also has focus outside of the graphics card industry. Like any company that has mastered its craft, NVIDIA set out to develop a competitive processor design that would change the face of mobile computing. Earlier this year NVIDIA announced that they were ready to product the APX 2500 application processor for a new line of handheld mobile Internet devices, but then very little actually materialized. Back with what might be considered a re-launch, NVIDIA launches the Tegra 650 and 600 mobile processors.

A few weeks ago at the NVIDIA Editors Day 2008, Benchmark Reviews was fortunate enough to meet with NVIDIA's mobile products staff and witness the Tegra processor in action. Using the APX 2500 processor in a mobile Internet device, we were able to see how a Smart Phone or portable media player could not only display full 720p content on its screen (or external display via HDMI interface), but is could also encode the very same media.

"Creating Tegra was a massive challenge. Our vision was to create a platform that will enable the 2nd personal computer revolution - which will be mobile centric, with devices that last days on a single charge, and yet has the web, high definition media, and computing experiences we've come to expect from our PC," said Jen-Hsun Huang, president and CEO at NVIDIA. "Shrinking down a 50 watt PC architecture will not create the discontinuity this industry needs. The culmination of nearly 1,000 man years of engineering, Tegra is a completely ground-up computer-on-a-chip architecture that consumes 100 times less power. Mobile internet and computing devices built with Tegra are going to be magical."

NVIDIA is building their mobile product offerings around the Windows Mobile 7 Operating System, which can offer a host of mobile compute applications to take full advantage of the Tegra 650 Mobile Processor. While the Tegra Processor is capable, you won't find any 3D video games running on a Tegra handheld device, which might disturb the ultra-conservative 2 Watts of power consumption.

About the Company: NVIDIA

NVIDIA (Nasdaq: NVDA) is the world leader in visual computing technologies and the inventor of the GPU, a high-performance processor which generates breathtaking, interactive graphics on workstations, personal computers, game consoles, and mobile devices. NVIDIA serves the entertainment and consumer market with its GeForce products, the professional design and visualization market with its Quadro products, and the high-performance computing market with its Tesla^TM products. NVIDIA is headquartered in Santa Clara, Calif. and has offices throughout Asia, Europe, and the Americas.

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