nvidia

HTC’s 2009 line-up – now with more nVidia Tegra

March 20, 2009 | By Surur

It seems we will soon know exactly how many screws hold together HTC’s 2009 smartphones. FuzeMobility has just come across a spreadsheet listing some more details and some new code names we have not heard mentioned before.

New to us are the Star, Superstar, Tachi, Chief and Captain.

The Captain is a Windows Mobile 6.1 Smartphone with a QVGA screen, likely similar to the Cedar and Willow.

The Chief W is also a Windows Mobile 6.1 Smartphone with a QVGA screen. The W designation indicated a World phone, ie dual CDMA and GSM. Chief and Captain may be older code names for the Cedar and Willow.

Tachi is a Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional device with a 2.8 inch VGA screen. Likely the last generation of Windows Mobile 6.1 devices, it seems to be the device known until now as the HTC Twin.

The Star is likely to be the HTC Firestone.

The Superstar however is the real mystery, and the only device which can not be identified from the known specs. The Nvidia AP16 chipset is likely referring to nVidia APX Tegra platform, which I am sure it very encouraging news to us enthusiasts disappointed by Qualcomm. The 3.7 inch WVGA screen near guarantees a media-focused device, which is something I think very many of us are waiting for.

See FuzeMobility for more info.

Thanks Wreiad for the tip!

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Windows Mobile and Tegra: Match Made in Heaven?

January 28, 2009 | By marios96

In a recent interview with Laptop Magazine, NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang talks among other things about NVIDIA’s own Tegra platform being incorporated in Windows Mobile based MIDs.

“You can create a full keyboard device with about a 10-inch display. With a 10-inch display and a full keyboard you also have the opportunity to include a full notebook battery. You could have a two- or three-day computing experience without another charge. Now you’re talking about a device that exceeds the users’ expectations, and delight them in a way that would cause them to buy the product and keep it. I expect to see $199 full notebook–form factor MIDs, based on Windows Mobile and Windows CE; based on processors like Tegra with full HD capability, but consume less than a watt. It’s like a little motorcycle with a tanker behind it. How far can you go? Well, around the earth. Telcos could be giving them away for Internet access as part of your cable service. I fully expect to see a whole new class of MIDs with full keyboards.”

I don’t know how viables those specifications are, but they do sound fantastic. A Tegra powered device with great battery life for just $199? Sign me up for two please…

The above quote, is also a good indication of what to expect from the recently leaked HTC devices Whitestone and/ or Thoth (Athena 2) as previous reports claimed that HTC will use Tegra processor with some of the new models.

Via: CrunchGear

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Qualcomm buys AMD’s mobile graphics IP

January 20, 2009 | By Surur

Qualcomm today announced that it has acquired certain graphics and multimedia technology assets, intellectual property and resources from AMD’s handheld business. The acquisition is meant to enhance Qualcomm’s current failing multimedia capabilities, hopefully preventing the wholesale flight of cellphone OEM’s using their chips.

The $65 million deals also include the AMD teams working in areas including 2D and 3D graphics, audio/video, display, and architecture for mobile devices.

“This acquisition of assets from AMD’s handheld business brings us strong multimedia technologies, including graphics cores that we have been licensing for several years,” said Steve Mollenkopf, executive vice president of Qualcomm and president of Qualcomm CDMA Technologies. “Bringing this technology in-house creates even greater synergy as we seamlessly integrate the best-in-class multimedia performance AMD offers into our system-on-chip (SoC) products.”

AMD is currently in the process of massive cutbacks, having let go 3300 employees over the last year. AMD aquired ATI in 2006, and its likely the tecnhlogy AMD sold to Qualcomm is sourced from this area.

Qualcomm is competing in the mobile space against Nvidia’s Tegra processor, a processor which has not proven itself on the market yet but which is rumoured to have already attracted attention of OEM’s like HTC in favour of Qualcomm’s offerings.

Read the full press release at Mobileburn here.

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Nvidia Tegra processor find first home in Asus laptop

January 8, 2009 | By Surur

We have been hearing about Nvidia’s much touted Tegra processor for some time, with first devices expected in the middle of 2009.

It is therefore quite a surprise to see it turn up, not in a handheld, but as part of a side-show-like subs-system for Asus’s prototype netbook. The device has an independent 4.7 inch screen, which features the same UI Nvidia has been showing of for some time, presumably running on a version of Windows Mobile.The device can run independently from the main laptop, much like the Windows Mobile OS on the HTC Shift, but, unlike the shift, remains confined to its small screen. This however does result in more than 12 hours of active battery life when running from the laptop’s main battery.

While it is nice to see the Tegra processor out in the wild, I know many of us cant wait for the chip to run up in an actual handheld device (that does not need a laptop bag) which we can buy.

Via Engadget.com

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Nvidia Tegra demo is mind blowing

October 12, 2008 | By Surur

We have written about the Nvidia Tegra processor before, and even put up some videos, but this hands-on demo recorded by Laptop Magazine, running on an actual prototype device really does bring the power of the processor home.

The prototype was shown of in last month and features the ability to output 720p video via HDMI and display web pages, video and photos in its dymanic 3D interface.

The prototype ran on a 600 MHz ARM11 processor and GeForce GPU and is based on Windows CE. The browser is based on Opera Mobile 9.5, who’s partnership with Nvidia we have reported on earlier.

It is not known yet which hardware OEM will be using the processor yet, but its highly likely to be a Windows Mobile device, but we can aways hope its an eXcellent device by HTC.

See the full article at LaptopMag.com and read this pdf for more information on the Tegra platform.

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Nvidia and Opera partner up for accelerated full desktop browsing on Windows Mobile

September 9, 2008 | By Surur

Nvidia has made clear its intention to storm the netbook market with its Windows Mobile solution by providing a full desktop browsing experience using an optimized Opera Mobile browser which will be available when bundled with its chipset and powerful Tegra processor.

“Seamless, effortless Internet access is critical to any state-of-the-art connected mobile device, and the combination of Opera 9.5 and NVIDIA Tegra will deliver the full Web experience into the palm of your hand,” said Neil Trevett, vice president of mobile content at NVIDIA. “Opera and NVIDIA are cooperating to create a powerful browsing experience that will truly make the Internet an integral part of the advanced Tegra mobile visual computing experience.”

“Full Web browsing is a key feature for mobile phones and mobile Internet devices today. End users are demanding a mobile-browsing experience that mirrors that of their home and work computers,” says Jon von Tetzchner, CEO of Opera Software. “Opera 9.5 combined with NVIDIA Tegra will deliver a powerful and visual browsing experience for the next generation of smartphones and mobile Internet devices.”

The Tegra family of computer-on-chip solutions integrates high-performance ARM CPUs, extensive media acceleration and integrated GeForce(R) GPUs that enable Opera 9.5 to provide mobile users a compelling browsing experience with the following features:

Support for full desktop Web content with hardware-accelerated rich media, image and in-page video playback;
GPU acceleration delivering a smooth, highly-interactive panning and zooming browsing experience with significantly-reduced battery consumption;
Hardware-accelerated 3D touch browsing experience with Opera integration into NVIDIA’s OpenKODE-based composition framework using the power of OpenGL ES 2.0.

Devices with the Opera browser powered by NVIDIA Tegra hardware are expected to be available to consumers in 2009.

Source: Nvidia Press Release

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Nvidia “completely focused on Windows Mobile 7″

August 27, 2008 | By Surur

Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang told the Nvision 2008 conference that Nvidia’s future is in smartphones and the “second personal computing revolution.” Nvidia wants to make smartphones computers first and phones second.

Smartphones, he added, are no less than a “second personal computing revolution.” Huang said when it comes to smartphones, Nvidia is “completely focused on Windows Mobile 7.”

“Focusing on smartphones. That’s our strategy,” And when it comes to smartphones, Haung believes they should be computers first, phones second. This means full desktop capability, like demonstrated with the Lamity Virtual World client running on their NVidia’s Tegra APX 2500 platform.

We look forward to devices running this processor, which shipped in volume in the second hand of 2008, appearing in consumer devices quite soon, likely in new Windows Mobile 7 devices, needed to support the higher graphics requirements of the updated OS.

Lamity – Second Life comes to Windows Mobile

August 27, 2008 | By Surur

If you have a kick-ass video processor you need heavy duty software to take advantage of it. EitaroSoft has created Lamity, a Second-life like virtual world software for Windows Mobile to be Ginger to NVidia’s Tegra APX 2500 Fred Astaire.

Lamity allows a maximum 400 people to simultaneously access a virtual town within the service. This number exceeds the simultaneous accessibility of PC-based service “Second Life”. Lamity was shown off at at NVIDIA’s NVISION 2008 event , held on 25 August, in San Jose, California. The Lamity service is being used by Square Enix Co. to provide a complementary premium members site. EitaroSoft is expecting to expand the service worldwide soon.

NVIDIA’s Tegra APX 2500 features great flexibility combining the supreme quality of graphics with the power of video, and is the industry’s first complete OpenKODE implementation. This promises great cross-platform multi-media content like Lamity itself, which will also be available on Android.

See Lamity in action in the video below:

Via WindowsforDevices.com

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