According to several reports on the Internet, Microsoft's much anticipated Zune media player is going to be designed around NVIDIA's Tegra chip, which will provide the upcoming player with support for high-quality H.264 content. The news is yet to be confirmed by either Microsoft or NVIDIA, but, if true, the move will come as a welcomed surprise for Zune fans. In addition, the Tegra chip will also place Microsoft's Zune above Apple's proud iPod touch, in terms of performance.

 

Rumors of NVIDIA having landed this major design win for its Tegra chip initially surfaced on donanimhaber.com, but were quickly picked up by several other websites. Although neither the chip maker nor Microsoft have yet announced the technical specifications of the upcoming Zune media player, Ryan Shrout from PC Perspective has confirmed that, according to details made available to him by NVIDIA staffers at Computex, Zune HD does use the company's Tegra processor.

 

It's a well established thing that NVIDIA has been actively promoting its Tegra processor for a while now, having already demonstrated some of its most interesting features. Tegra devices will have the capability of providing users with support for video decoding and high-quality H.264 content, which could also be among some of the features on Microsoft's Zune HD. The Tegra chip is built around an ARM11 processor and includes a GeForce GPU, an Image processor, HD Video processor and all the chip architecture you will need for a complete mobile computer on a chip.

 

Tegra was one of the main highlights for this year's Computex show, having landed no less than 12 design wins. It now appears that the collaboration between NVIDIA and Microsoft has gone to new lengths, as the Santa Clara, California-based chip maker is getting ready to supply the software giant with the chips that will be powering the highly anticipated Zune HD media player.