14 DAY TRIAL // NVIDIA, the leading manufacturer of consumer graphic cards, is planning to release a line of processors. These products are designed for small, handheld devices and are expected to be displayed at the Computex exhibition in Taipei, next week. According to the Inquirer, NVIDIA plans to unveil the details about Tegra that, until now, has only been speculated upon.
The Tegra lineup is expected to include two products, namely Tegra APX 2500 and CSX 600/650, both of which are based on the ARM11 processor. NVIDIA's new product aims at providing users with an alternative for Intel's Atom-based devices. The chip will come in a 144mm2 package and will be capable of 720 encoding and 14MBps decoding. It appears that it will also support all of the latest generation features, similar to the company's current GeForce line. The product will provide AA, AF and OpenGL ES 2.0 support.
From the two processors, the CSX 600 and 650 are the biggest performers. These two processing units are designed for large machines including handhelds and full working laptops. The chip will not be capable of offering Windows XP or ME II support, but it does, instead, provide support for Windows CE. Technical specs include a 256K of L2 cache and clock speed set at 700-800 MHz. The chip is expected to provide HD support with 1080p at 24FPS, which is rather similar to Intel's Atom, save for the FPS limit.
The new processor might mark the beginning of NVIDIA's involvement in the CPU market. With it, the graphics chip vendor might become the next important player in the central processing unit industry. Hopes are high that details about the upcoming Tegra will be unveiled after the Taipei Comptuex show, where the company is also expected to release a computing product in conjunction with Via Technologies. It appears that Nvidia will deliver a chipset that will support VIA's upcoming Isaiah processor, offering better graphics.