February 11, 2008
Nvidia to boost Windows v Apple mobile contest
Apple is not the only Silicon Valley company trying to shake up the mobile world with more graphically rich phones.
Nvidia, known best for its PC graphics cards, unveiled an applications processor at the Mobile World Congress today that enables 10 hours of high-definition video playback and 100 hours of audio on a phone.
The Santa Clara company says its APX 2500 is the world’s lowest power HD computer on a chip.
The processor is the fruit of its $357m PortalPlayer acquisition in November 2006. The chip company was picked up after it lost a key Apple order for its iPods.
“PortalPlayer was the technology behind the first five generations of the iPod – a system on a chip that decoded the audio with very low power use,” says Mike Rayfield, general manager of Nvidia’s mobile unit.
“We’ve combined that with our graphics processors for handheld devices to make application processors.”
Nvidia saw a trend where the modem parts of mobile phones were being separated from application processors, which were becoming more like computer processors, he added.
Mr Rayfield sees applications such as immersive 3D maps and users plugging their phones into hotel-room TVs to play two-hour movies stored on the handset.
Nvidia expects full production of the processor to be underway by mid-year and is pitching it at Windows Mobile devices. It says it allows handset makers to come up with a “Smartphone 2.0” that can challenge the iPhone’s graphical richness, with Windows Vista-like 3D-overlays and transparency possible in the display.
