CES 2010: NVIDIA shows off brand-new Tegra chips, 3D Tech and a whole new direction.
Today is the first day of CES 2010, bringing to the forefront a host of exciting new technologies and announcements – something that NVIDIA is sure to be a part of. While the most exciting news about their next GPU core, the GF100, wasn't detailed today, there's plenty about the Tegra chip and where NVIDIA will put it.
NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang announced the second version of the Tegra chip; essentially a SoC (System on Chip) design that incorporates a dual-core ARM9 processor, an NVIDIA graphical processor with 8 cores and audio. It's manufactured in a slim 40nm process, but most astounding is that it nibbles only 500 milliwatts of power at full load, and doesn't require any active cooling nor even a heatsink.
While the chip isn't going to be anywhere near as fast in CPU tasks as the latest CPUs from Intel or AMD, and the graphics core isn't going to be as fast as any desktop cards – the one thing it offers is extreme portability. NVIDIA seem to have packed the new Tegra chip into any space that is big enough to hold one, and there's already over fifty developers that have devices in mind based around the teensy platform. The chip doesn't appear to be confirmed in the rumoured next-gen Nintendo handheld, though anything is possible at this stage.
NVIDIA also showed off plenty of their 3D VISION tech demos, boasting an impressive list of compatible games as well as a growing list of manufacturers that produce screens able to refresh fast enough to work. They've added support for three screens for ultra-ultra-ultra widescreen gaming, essentially the same as AMD's Eyefinity technology. They can also playback Blu-ray discs in 3D on-the-fly, though you do need a compatible screen and the VISION glasses for it to work.
It's an interesting bunch of stuff from the green team to pore over, and it'll certainly shake up the netbook/notebook portable market quite a bit. Head into the gallery of pictures for a look at the new chip, as well as in-depth info.
Issue: 111 | April, 2010