NVIDIA Launches Tegra 2

At CES this week NVIDIA launched the new Tegra platform, officially making 2010 the rebirth of the Tablet. Even with hints of the Apple Tablet coming around, it turns out that quite a few companies have already jumped on the bandwagon of super thin slate computers thanks to the second generation NVIDIA Tegra. This new chipset offers more processing power, gaming support, and much better battery life than the original Tegra and is aimed to really change the mobile computing space.

The Tegra 2 represents a huge undertaking at NVIDIA and one of the biggest projects they have worked on since the company was founded. From what we saw today at the NVIDIA press conference, it looks like most of that work will be well worth their time.

Tegra 2 Specifications:

• 8 Independent Processors
• Dual-Core Coretex-A9 CPU
• 10x Performance
• 500 milliwatt Power Consumption

NVIDIA demoed quite a few prerelease tablet products from multiple manufacturers including ASUS, Compal, ICD, MSI, Mobinova, and Quanta. Internet browsing with fast page rendering was a key aspect, as well as full 1080P flash support for online video streaming from sites like YouTube. From a gaming standpoint they also mentioned that the Tegra 2 platform will support the Unreal gaming engine, bringing many of the latest games to the mobile platform. This is a huge leap forward for the mobile gaming market, since up until now many of the portable gaming systems are close to a decade behind PC's in terms of processing and GPU performance. Tegra 2 is claimed to be only two-three years behind modern gaming systems.

Right now we can only mention NVIDIA's claims about the Tegra 2 platform and what we had a chance to see at today's press conference. If what we saw holds true, the devices hitting the might displace what most of us might use a netbook for. Battery life is another area that will really shift the scale compared to current devices on the market. NVIDIA claimed the Tegra 2 could offer up to 140 hours of music playback and 16 hours of HD video playback. With most portable devices on the market lucky to even hit half of that... it's not hard to say this is definitely going to be a game changer in more ways than one.

 

16 hours of video? Wow, and i thought my 4-5 hours was impressive on my N97....

 

Nice, finally you got it up.

 

I'd be thrilled if they'll put Tegra on a smartphone.

 

That's their next move I believe. However the new Morsetown Atom that Intel is introducing to smart phones is quite impressive too.

 

two-three years behind modern systems? wat? 8800gtx was introduced 2-3 years ago.

 

Ha, nice one, all these pre-release propaganda wordings are making me headache, too. I don't really know what it means, but I bet it's not 8800gtx that they had in mind.

Anyway, graphical power has come a long way and I love seeing smaller and smaller devices getting GPU power of larger devices. Yet, ironically, I found the graphically-simple DSiWare bomberman (which really is not that different from its very first Nintendo release in 1983) just as addictive as any FPS game made in recent years. I am also happy to see my 9-yr old son prefer the free extra Fate of Atlantis (1992) over the Staff of Kings (2009) that we paid for (fortunately, only $15) in his Wii.

 

DSiWare rocks. xD
Gone crazy trying to finish Mini Mario. xD

 

2-3 years, ok, but define gaming. It could mean 2-3 years behind low-end components and you'd have a meh thing, or you could have an ok to good thing if going higher, and if tianxia is right, the 8800M GTX was introduced a few years ago (and has sticked to this days renamed) and compared to that it would be a beast....

Kevin, is it 140 hours of music AND 16 of video or is it 140 OR 16?>???

 

that would be an "OR" in the traditional sense, but an "AND" in the marketing sense.

ie. it is capable of both, just not at the same time.

 

thanks, it would be awesome if you could get both...perfect for long trips, but still amazing.

 

Holy smokes!

I will believe it when I see it, but if true that would be quite something!

 

Impressive NVIDIA, very impressive....hope you can deliver.

 

Hmmm I thought the Tegre platform was mainly for phones/PDAs/Zunes....interesting.

 

Whoa. This is quite impressive. I'm hoping for at least 8600GT performance. Maybe this can be implemented on some media players. Zune HD 2G anyone?

 

wouldnt expect 8600GT...
even MBA still using 9400M ..... how about 8200M ....lol

 

i would hold my judgement, the news was as vague as it could get.

 

i'd be supprised if it could out perform a geforce 2.

edit: apparently the tegra 1 was about as powerful as a geforce 2 ultra if you put AA on both. so maybe the tegra 2 will be like a geforce 3 ti500.

 

Nvidia's rumored to have signed with Nintendo for the next DS. This will likely power it.

 

Nintendo caring about graphics now? The world must be ending.

 

Wow, Tegra 2 is quite impressive. I look forward to seeing some reviews of products with it.

It could definitely be a game changer.

 

The first system nintendo had that was weak on graphics was the Wii........

Gamecube was more powerful then PS2.

 

So battery life is good. Now I want to know its resolution.

 

And where's ION2?

 

No words on that. I tried to get some information but the Nvidia reps refused to give out anything.

 

Was it not supposed to be out by now anyways?

 

Ion2 is basically a discreet graphics chip. I seriously doubt laptop manufactures will pickup Ion2

 

So... any idea when the first Tegra 2 netbook/laptop/tablet will hit? I want one asap! And I don't mean one of those stupid subsidized ones. Signing a 2-year contract when these things may very well be obselete within two years is a no-no.

 

If the resolution is 1280x800 or so, I can easily see it being comparable to any of the chips at the time. That resolution isn't all that graphics hungry. If "plays 1080p" actually means at least 1920x1080, that's much more impressive, with double the pixel count. That must require 32nm or 28nm fabrication to get the power down so much.

 

No, I was referring the new releases from NVidia in general, starting with the Fermi.