There has been a lot of whispering about Nvidia’s next-generation Tegra chip, code-named Kal-El (Superman’s Kryptonian name, for the uninitiated), since it was first detailed on a roadmap back in Februrary. But it hasn’t shown up quite yet in any actual handsets or tablets, though we’re told it has been adopted by the majors and will have its debut soon.
Nvidia today released some new information about the SoC that confirms Tegra’s status as the brand to beat in the mobile computing world. Turns out it’s not quad-core, it’s penta-core. And the “companion core” is designed to take over while all the others go to sleep. → Read More
The TrimSlice is a mini-PC with a mission: to be amazingly small and light and feature TV-in and a number of useful and surprising outputs. It is, in short, one of the coolest kiosk or dedicated use PCs I’ve seen in a long while. The Tegra 2 chip is housed in a thin, fanless case with stereo line in/out as well as HDMI out. It can hold a laptop hard drive and runs 1GB of DDR2 memory. It has four USB ports, SD and MicroSD readers, and even a freaking Ethernet port. If I weren’t worried about processing power, I’d say it would make a great HTPC. No pricing, but it won’t cost very much, that much is sure. Click through for full specs. → Read More
Japanese PC maker Onkyo, which rolled out three Windows tablets in its home market earlier this year, has unveiled an Android-based tablet that will go on sale (again, in Japan first) this week. Dubbed SlatePad TA117 [JP], the device features a slew of nice features. → Read More
The cheeky head of Nvidia, Jen-Hsun Huang, frequently trashes other companies and makes announcements like how he’s going to open a can of whoop-ass on Intel. This week, he’s ragging on tablets. The iPad is spared his ire, because, let’s face it, it’s a successful and useful device. But the Galaxy Tab? “A tablet is not a large phone.”
Harsh. I wonder if this guy reads my articles? → Read More
We reported yesterday about Toshiba’s plans of bringing Android-powered tablets to the US next year, and here at CEATEC, big T gave all attendees the chance to try out the Folio 100, a Europe-only device. The Toshiba employee at the booth told me it will probably hit Japan and other markets next year though. → Read More
Although everybody seems to recognize the Tegra brand, there are precious few products actually using it, though it is suited to tablets and the next year may bring surprises. Certainly today brought a surprise in the form of NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang casually noting that Tegra 3 is nearly done and work beginning on Tegra 4. → Read More
And yet another tablet. This time, we get an Android 2.2-powered model [JP] from Japanese company Mouse Computer. The so-called LuvPad AD100 (what a name) features a 10-inch multitouch LCD screen with LED backlight and 1,024×600 resolution. → Read More
With a Tegra 2 Tegra 2-esque ARM A9-based processor confirmed Tegra 2 inside, 9.7″8.9″ wide screen, and a full gig of RAM, these tablets from Foxconn (unnamed and undated) look to be pretty serious pieces of hardware. They run Android, which I’ve always thought is unsuited for tablets that size, but hey, until something nicer comes out, it’s free and it works. More info over at Giz. Netbook News has a video for you, as well (thanks for the Tegra confirmation). → Read More
If there is one rumor that tends to come and go and agonizes Windows Mobile fans, it’s the one about a Zune phone. Although it’s not officially confirmed, Gizmodo has it on good word that Microsoft will be introducing a Zune phone at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this year. More specifically, it will be a Windows Mobile 7 phone with Zune features and capabilities, so it’s not a Zune phone, per se. → Read More
Here’s a nice, juicy rumor to start the day off on the right (or wrong) foot. After those recent supposed screenshots of Google’s upcoming Chrome OS, Taiwan’s Shanzai.com is now reporting the following: “According to our reliable sources on the Mainland, both Lenovo and Acer are planing to launch Tegra-based devices running Google’s Chrome OS, and the word on the streets is that it could even happen sometime later this month.” → Read More
There’s a reason why the Zune HD’s interface moves so smoothly. Powering the device is the Nvidia Tegra, which Nvidia recently described as an “an entire computer-on-a-chip,” and one with “eight separate processors, including: a GPU, two video processors, and audio processor, two ARM core processor and more.” (That “and more” bit is a bit ambiguous for my liking, but what are you gonna do?) In any event, the Zune HD looks to have some serious computational power going for it. WILL IT BE AN IPOD KILLER? → Read More
Based on orders and production numbers reported by Digitimes, it looks like the holidays are going to be… portable. Snapdragon and Tegra units are expected from a bunch of major OEMs, though it’s far from established that you can make a decent device out of them above a PMP or phone.
8.9-inch “smartbooks” powered by Tegra? Come on. The market doesn’t need this much fragmentation. → Read More
Nvidia is shopping around a design prototype running their Tegra ARM processor, a chip powerful enough to run Wind CE and power a wee keyboard and screen.
Tegra was supposed to change the way we thought about smartphones a few months ago but the chipset never took off. Sadly, this doesn’t seem like it will make any headway either. → Read More
Nvidia’s Tegra chip hasn’t even hit the market, but we know for fact that Tegra 2 is on its way next year. There’s no set timeframe, but we believe it will hit the market sometime during the summer or so its been hinted at. The first Tegra device to be released stateside will be the Zune HD in the fall. I’ve already seen what it can do with Windows CE on a handful of netbooks that were showcased at Computex last month and I walked away very impressed. So what can we expect from Tegra 2? → Read More
Ah, Project Pink, I haven’t heard anything from or about you in quite a long time. But it looks like Redmond made some key changes to its agency roster and McCann picked up the “Pink” account. McCann also handles Windows Mobile. According to ZDnetter Mary Jo Foley, Pink will be built on top of Windows Mobile 7, which MS plans to release the code for this fall when WinMo 6.5 devices start to flood the market. Foley goes on to say that she’s heard that Motorola will manufacture Pink alongside the Sidekick. Except she fails to realize that Sharp manufactures the Sidekick; Motorola built the Slide that has since been axed from the lineup. So does that mean Danger is in the mix? Maybe. On a side note, it’s pretty funny that the UI for Pink is codenamed “Purple” because Bing’s earliest codename was also Purple or so I’ve heard. Going back to early May, Foley detailed purported specs for Pink and the biggest indicator that the device could be tied in with the Zune platform is the use of Nvidia’s Tegra platform. And it wouldn’t surprise me if Danger had a big hand in all of this because they haven’t done much with the Hiptop unit other than including Live Search in the latest Sidekick LX. Just don’t go to Verizon. → Read More
We’ve been talking about Nvidia’s Tegra on CG here and there, but not very many people know exactly what it is. Sure, it’s a tiny mobile computer, but how does it work and where did it come from? Where can we find it and why is it better than Intel’s Atom? We asked Nvidia this and more. → Read More
I thought we already knew this, since it was included in all those other details that were confirmed shortly after, but everybody else seems surprised so we should probably at least act like we didn’t know (we’re very polite here at CG). Yes, the ZuneHD does officially use Nvidia’s Tegra chipset — its hardware decoder and low power draw made it a natural choice. I still would have liked to see a slightly bigger screen, the better to show off that beautiful UI, but I guess you can’t have everyzing. → Read More
Nvidia has announced that it plans to power $99 mobile internet devices with its Tegra 600 series chips, perhaps as early as this summer. What’s a mobile internet device (MID)? Well, it’s a gadget that fits somewhere in between a smartphone and a netbook. It’s compact and internet-enabled, but it can’t quite fit in your pocket or make phone calls. It’s primarily intended for web surfing and watching videos over a WiFi or 3G connection. According to VentureBeat, Nvidia is touting both the long battery life and the HD video capabilities of these Tegra-based devices. General Manager Michael Rayfield says they can go for days without a recharge and they support 1080p HD video playback, which is the high end of what you’ll find streaming online. Nvidia plans to use both Windows CE and Android to power its cheap MIDs (although it appears as though the Windows CE-based versions will come first, with Android-based devices a more distant prospect). The $99 Tegra-based device is just the low-end of a product line that includes a $299 device (that also runs on an Intel Atom processor) and a $599 device that has more of the functionality you’d find in a regular laptop. Part of me wonders whether Nvidia is trying to fill a niche that doesn’t really exist. If I want to surf the web, my smartphone does just fine – and I’m already paying a monthly data plan for it anyway (I certainly don’t need to pay for two). As for video, I’ll stick with my laptop since it can play DVDs, which are still the most reliable way to watch TV shows and movies. It also doesn’t help that Nvidia plans to run Windows CE (really…Windows CE?). Android sounds more promising, though, especially with its greater potential to power netbooks and an array of smartphones all at the same time. → Read More
In an interview with Laptop Magazine, NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang talks about the current state of netbooks, his company’s new Ion platform, rumors about Intel’s supposed strong-arming of device manufacturers, and other netbook and MID platforms from AMD, VIA, along with the probability behind netbooks powered by NVIDIA’s own Tegra platform. → Read More
Embedded and generally small systems are becoming a more serious market force every day, not just as mobile phones become more powerful, but media players, netbooks, and miscellaneous stuff like the Pandora. Intel’s Atom seems to be the star of the show right now due to their clout, but VIA has an extremely competitive product, other smaller companies do as well, and now NVIDIA is ready to jump into the game as a platform provider. It runs at 700MHz or 800MHz and has an integrated GeForce core and hardware video decoder, both of which would be very useful for a handheld media player. They demonstrated a prototype in an NVIDIA mobile a few months ago, but starting in mid-2009 the Tegra “system-on-a-chip” will probably start popping up all over the place. I’m guessing it was meant to launch earlier and with more hardware, but NVIDIA’s recent troubles may have delayed that. → Read More
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