Nvidia debuts chips for tiny PCs

[Jay]

BBC NEWS | Technology | Nvidia debuts chips for tiny PCs

Nvidia has joined a growing band of hardware makers producing low-power, portable laptops.

Better known for graphics cards, Nvidia has shown off two Tegra processors designed for tiny laptops or netbooks.

It said devices fitted with the chips would be able to browse the web, show high-definition video and be able to handle graphically-heavy games.

The move pits Nvidia against chip giant Intel which is releasing a similar line of chips for such small devices.

[Flewis]

As these will be in direct competition with the intel atom chips it will all get decided when proper benchmarks come out. Its good for intel to have some direct competition as it will keep prices down. This can only be a good thing for the consumer.

[Jay]

but not for AMD / ATI. They have nothing, nVidia are doing what AMD/ATi should be able to do.

[aidanjt]

AMD has had these for quite some time, and they bootstrap wicked fast.

[MadduckUK]

these aren't x86, so not really direct competition for intel atoms

[alsenior]

these aren't x86, so not really direct competition for Intel atoms

i noticed that they were using an arm core too. the only thing you could really put on these would be Linux or a custom os unless ms makes a Risc Version of XP

[Rosaline]

I believe that there is a Windows Mobile edition for ARM processors, actually (that would also explain why the Tegra has D3D optomisations ).

However, as stated, it is not really in direct competition with Atom, more like sideways. Although they are both aimed at the same market, Intel is hoping that the lure of the well-known x86 instruction set will make it popular, whilst nVidia is, in many respects, simply joining the existing ARM-heavy market as a new chip manufacturer. Also, Atom does not have any image processing abilities, and I believe it is not even close to a SoaC, whereas nVidia's Tegra does have Ultra Low Power geForce circuitry and some parts which reduce the need for other chipsets (moving it towards a true System on a Chip).

[MadduckUK]

I believe that there is a Windows Mobile edition for ARM processors

well yes, otherwise windows smartphones and PDA's would be in trouble eh? which is all these will be good for to be honest. we already have hardware acceleration in PDA's (when they make the drivers for it ).

so less like a small PC, more like a big PDA

[Jay]

so this could be the type of thing for future embedded apps.

[WoLFe]

but not for AMD / ATI. They have nothing, nVidia are doing what AMD/ATi should be able to do.

Well ATI have really lagged behind the times in some respects.

[Biscuit]

Well ATI have really lagged behind the times in some respects.

Spent all their cash getting native quad to work... unfortunately it wasnt worth it from what we have seen so far