NVIDIA TO LAUNCH TEGRA 2 PLATFORM AT CES

Sources claim that NVIDIA is going to announce new Tegra-powered devices at CES in January. The company will also introduce its next generation Tegra chipset in January.
Nvidia’s Tegra platform combines a low power ARM-based processor with Nvidia graphics.

The Tegra chips are designed for use on small devices and would offer high quality video and graphics performance. As ARM processors are highly power efficient, you will also get excellent battery life. But not many devices use the Tegra chipset at the moment. There is the Zune HD which can play 720p video for up to 8.5 hours. There are also a few smartbooks.

The new devices will reportedly include smartphones, tablets, smartbooks and netbooks. The products are expected to start coming in early 2010.

TEGRA 2 COMING NEXT YEAR

Nvidia’s Tegra platform combines an ARM-based processor with Nvidia graphics. The resultant device can play HD video fluently.

Processors based on the Tegra platform deliver impressive performance on low power devices. One of the first Tegra powered device to hit the market was Zune HD, a portable media player. Now more and more manufacturers have started using the platform.

And if some reports are to be believed, Nvidia has already started building the next generation Tegra platform. Tegra 2, as it would be called, is expected to be available in 2010 and it will considerably improve the performance of smartbooks, smartphones and portable media players.

TEGRA POWERED SMARTBOOKS IN THE DEVELOPMENT

Smartbooks powered by Nvidia’s Tegra platform are currently being built. These devices are expected to run on Google’s upcoming Chrome operating system.

The Tegra platform is different from the ION platform. While the ION platform pairs an Intel Atom processor with Nvidia 9400M GPU, the Tegra platform pairs an ARM-based processor with Nvidia GeForce GPU. The advantages of using the Tegra platform include a long battery life. Intel’s processors are notorious for being power hungry. The ARM processors, on the other hand, are very energy efficient. Nvidia also claims that smartbooks running on the Tegra platform will be capable of handling 1080p video, HD Flash, 3G and Wi-Fi.