Due out in 2010

Oct 14, 2009 09:26 GMT  ·  By

NVIDIA is a company that has been mostly about graphics, something that has been confirmed over the years by its successful products, such as those high-end GeForce cards. However, the Santa Clara, California-based chip maker is looking to expand its horizons with the help of new products, such as the Tegra chip. This product is behind the recently launched Microsoft Zune HD multimedia player, but also behind the Samsung BeatPlayer M1 (or YP-M1). However, it looks like NVIDIA might have managed to score a contract with Nintendo, which will reportedly put the Tegra chip inside the upcoming line of DS gaming consoles.

 

According to a recent news-article on the Bright Side of News, NVIDIA has managed to land a contract with Nintendo, the creator of one of the world's most successful gaming consoles, the Wii. The collaboration between the two companies will put the former's Tegra chip in the latter’s upcoming DS portable console, which is reportedly due out sometime in early 2010.

 

The Nintendo DS was launched back in 2004 and so far has been relaunched with two new designs, the DS Lite and the Dsi, all of which have helped the company sell no less than 111.49 million units, grabbing no less than an impressive 68.3% of the worldwide market share.

 

Unfortunately, there aren't many details regarding the technical specifications of the upcoming DS console, or what Tegra chip will be used in the upcoming design. On the bright side, it looks like the next-generation DS will be backward compatible with the current DS application library, thanks to the adoption of 16-bit and 32-bit ARM cores inside the current line of Nintendo DS.

 

While Microsoft's current Zune HD media player is taking advantage of the technical specifications and features of the 65nm-based Tegra chips, the Nintendo DS could be powered by the upcoming NVIDIA Tegra 2 chip, manufactured on 40nm process technology.