Xbit labs article on Tegra 2

[akugami]

http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/mobile/display/20091215160722_Nvidia_Promises_Tegra_2_Based_Netbooks_Smartbooks_Smartphones_in_2010.html]Xbitlabs[/url]

Engadget ZuneHD

Some information that might not be known. Not exactly a lot of details but a few interesting nuggets.

I'm quite interested in Tegra 2 and would like to see how it competes. It's very probably IMHO that ARM based systems like Tegra will be the future of mobile computing devices.

**EDIT

Found this on Engadget. Obviously an example of what Tegra can do on a ZuneHD which is pretty darned good. Makes me that much more interested in what Tegra 2 can do.

 

[faxon]

In my mind, ARM is turning into the x86 ISA of the mobile world. It's highly effecient performance/watt ratio is so good that the 2 ghz dual core ARM chips planned will still work passively cooled and with dev support should meet 90% of most peoples computing needs. Intel should still mantain it's heavyweight power in the gaming and HPC crowd, but for day to day tasks we are going to start seeing more and more ARM based systems moving into even the home media and nettop space in the near future. Hell, a lot of enthusiasts already have ARM chips in their comps in the form of indilinx SSDs. Won't be long before we se more

 

[akugami]

Absolutely agree with ARM becoming the x86 of the mobile world. Not only that, I think it has a great chance of taking over low end PC's and nettops as well as home theater PC's.

While PowerVR powers devices like the iPhone and Palm Pre it isn't enough for some functions such as video encoding and decoding in HTPC's. This is where nVidia's expertise can come into play in Tegra based systems. They can couple the ARM processor with a GPU core that supports video acceleration and encoding/transcoding.

IMHO, Tegra is already good enough for nettop use and Tegra 2 would only improve on it. A Palm Pre, Zune HD, and iPhone really is powerful enough for web browsing and simple stuff like document creation and email. Basically what most people would do on their computers.

Tegra 2 is probably the product that interests me the most coming out of nVidia. ARM is poised to challenge x86 and nVidia is in prime position to be a major player/seller of ARM based systems.

 

[faxon]

Yea for video editing in the future, I expect to see some type of a stand alone device powered by an ARM chip running linux with a powerful OpenCl or directcompute gpu for doing the video work. You wouldn't need more than a $180 gpu to make it leagues faster than traditional work, and the rest of the box wouldn't need much else. Pricetag would be similar to an entry level desktop but for what it's made for, it would use a lot less power and be significantly faster