Submitted by Netbooks, netbooks, netbooks, netbooks, netbooks. That’s basicaly Computex in a nutshell. If you’ve seen one Atom-based netbook, you’ve seen them all, but luckily for us, NVIDIA is about to shake the world of netbooks up with a new Tegra chipset, the Tegra 650. Full high definition playback, battery life from outer space, and a processor that is always-on. Well, that’s what NVIDIA promises, anyway. Twelve Tegra 650 devices were announced, with the first devices shipping before the end of the year – at USD 199 or less.
So, what exactly is Tegra? It’s an ARM-based system-on-a-chip design, with an ARM11 750Mhz processor. The entire SoC seems to be geared towards multimedia processing, as it allows for full HD (1080p) playback, both on the internal display as well as an external one. The GPU also accelerates processing of Flash content, and since slowness in Flash on Atom-based devices is pretty common, this can only be seen as a good thing (we’ll ignore the fact that Flash is a pile of crap and should not need GPU acceleration in the first place, but let’s not go there again).
This being ARM-based equipment, battery life is mind-blowing (again, if we were to believe NVIDIA): 25 days of music or 10-hours of 1080p video playback on a single charge. Let me repeat that for you: 25 days of music or 10-hours of 1080p video playback on a single charge. Seeing an Atom-based device barely pulls a few hours of normal usage (and does not allow for HD playback at all), this is pretty amazing stuff. NVIDIA also promises that “video games play at up to 46 frames per second”, but on whatever game that’s based, I don’t know. Furthermore, the processor is “always-on”, meaning you’ll get instant access to your network (cool). 3G, WiFi, and WiMax are all supported.
That’s the hardware side of things – what about software? This is an ARM-based design, so regular Windows won’t work. That means Linux, right? Well, of course, Linux will work. However, the first actual working device based on this new Tegra 650 platform runs… Windows CE. It’s called the Mobinnova élan smartbook, and comes with a custom 3D-ish interface designed by NVIDIA. A short video below, where it plays a 1080p trailer.
Devices based on this new Tegra 650 platform will arrive before the end of the year, at USD 199, but they could be as cheap as USD 99 if subsidised by mobile carriers.
If the battery life is anywhere near their claims, I’ll be all over this.
I think this may be well be the new cash windmill for NVidia. If they can put this processor in the quarter of every MID/netbook, they’ll make so much cash I guess they’ll have enought to dip into x86.
Why only MIDs & Netbooks?
What about Set-top-boxes? What do settop boxes use currently? I know the Apple TV uses an Intel chip, not sure about Tivo and others.
Imagine a AppleTV costing only $100. I would be much more likely to buy one at that price. Or a set-top box with Linux and VLC, allowing me to access all my video files in any format on my computer.
Edited 2009-06-02 21:13 UTC
Errr… there is something appleTV-likeish…but better at 100 Us$. Applying the Western Digital WDTV a firmware from http://b-rad.cc/wdlxtv and a USB to ethernet adapter allow you to setup NFS/NAS/USB cdrom support/bittorrent/video streaming services plus it does 1080p
.
I don’t need streaming services. I need the ability to be able to connect to a LCD monitor or TV and use it without needing to connect another computer to the mix.
Although, I can see how streaming services would be useful, that isn’t what I personally need.
Before anyone gets excited about a netbook that has to run Linux, see: http://www.engadget.com/2009/06/02/video-tegra-based-mobinnova-elan…
Windows CE. You knew Microsoft wasn’t going to sit there and let a whole class of consumer computers be sold without trying to get a piece. And yeah, Arm CE is mostly useless without x86 apps. So we get the best of both worlds: Windows instead of Linux, but without the apps.
Of course people can install whatever they want on it, but I’m not expecting a lot of companies to ship even Arm based netbooks with Linux and support it
i can’t tell if your post was intended as sarcasm or not so i wil just go ahead and adress little bits of it.
Yes is has Win CE instead of linux: But, while not having as many apps, Win CE does have a ton of apps that suport ARM. Also, it is not that hard to get existing .NET aps to run on modern Win Ce implimentations (late veriosn 5, and current version 6).
Linux on arm: Linux on ARM is picking up speed as more distributions (and google’s Android) are using ARM now and many many linux apps recompile with out much effort for these distributions.
I am not sure yet of the state of the linux hardware acceleration for Tegra, but I believe it’s either released or nearly finished (it was close a little while ago, but i stopped paying attention).
Over all Nvidia did a great job with this platform, and it’s capabilities are just short of amazing. can’t wait till these devices are in production.
Wow, that would be a first.
Wtf? Windows CE (and Mobile aka Pocket PC) only support the “Compact Framework”. So let me assure you it is not *easy* to run anything .NET based from desktop on devices…
Little-known fact: Most of the world is actually a suburb of Redmond, Washington. Thus the tax…
I wonder how much a Windows CE license is going to be. It can’t be costing nVidia much, if they’re building the hardware and paying for a Windows CE license, and still selling the things for as little as $199. One hopes the Linux version is going to be at least a little cheaper – unless Microsoft is simply giving away Windows CE licenses.
For that matter, how much of a draw is Windows CE really going to be? Is it close enough to the desktop Windows experience that people will prefer it to system running Linux? I’d like to think that, if they can’t get Windows 7, most consumers will pick normal, “desktop OS” Linux over Windows CE, which I at least think of as an OS for high-end cell phones (stupid of me as that probably is).
But that battery life is crazy, that price is low, and if Moblin runs on it decently, I’ll get me one a’ these.
These CE devices will have apps like App Store style apps through microsofts app store front. So no customers wont be able to install their favorite software from disc, but their will be a decent amount of titles (most around 1st quarter of 2010).
There will be apps though, and it will feel desktop like. your normal user, casual user, will be satisfied. The battery life is one of the huge selling points on these guys (aside from their graphics capabilities).
MS may or may not have a pull on that market. Since it depends on who will produce these things. If it’s a company like Nokia, then they can forget MS, and whatever they like.
Oh, and BTW, MS will have to gamble very carefully, since EU Competition Commission will be watching this. You know, that is what “anti trust” is all about.
windows ce is horrible. it is a nightmare to develop apps to it.
I’m wondering, whether will they release one.
“video games play at up to 46 frames per second”
It’s Quake. Bit-Tech has a nice summary.
http://preview.tinyurl.com/nwxmgf
Didn’t realize Tegra had 8 independent processors:
Arm 11, Arm 7, GPU, 2D, HD Decode, HD Encode, Audio, Imaging
Wow, Quake in 46fps in 2009. Color me unimpressed.
an its quake3. the limiting factor is probably the cpu, as in this test of the ion plattform:
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/mainboards/display/nvidia-ion_7.ht…
Actually, the problem with quake or quake-based engines on these new mobile devices is that all the quake games were built for DirectX 8 (or earlier) or the openGL equivalents — no shaders, and more importantly, the features that were popular and more optimized then, are not what is popular or optimized in these mobile GPUs.
To get real performance, you actually have to drastically re-write the graphics engine to tailor it to the new styled mobile GPUs. Most of the “quick and dirty” ports that are out there now rely on slow OpenGL-emulators, or one-off, thin wrappers. I’m only aware of one port that actually attempts to be optimal by re-writing the renderer to take advantage of OpenGL|ES 2.0 and shaders, though its name escapes me at the moment.
Please just not the Windows CE. Don’t set it inside new gorgeous Nvidia Tegra devices. Just don’t. In one phrase: A PLATFORM OF WIN FILLED BY FAIL-OS.
At least they can use Linux, for fu/user/ sake!
article about the tegra by jon stokes: NVIDIA’s Tegra takes on Intel in the MID/PMP market
http://arstechnica.com/hardware/news/2009/06/nvidias-tegra-takes-on…