Nvidia Targets Tegra Processor at Internet Devices

The standard MID would likely have a 8.9-inch or 10.1- inch LCD and carry a $100 to $200 cost for carriers. The carriers will likely subsidize the hardware with a goal of making money by selling subscribers long-term service contracts, said Michael Rayfield, general manager of Nvidia’s mobile business unit.

Rayfield declined comment on potential cellular partners. But Foxconn, Mobinova, Pegatron and Wistron all demonstrated Tegra-based MIDs at Computex 2009 in Taiwan earlier this month. Foxconn is a major cellphone supplier. Mobinova showed a 720p-capable MID with an 8.9-inch LCD with Wi-Fi and 3G and a webcam, as well as a tablet with a 10.1- inch screen. Most of the Tegra-equipped MIDs at Computex used Arm 11-based Tegra 650 or Tegra 600 processors that have 750 MHZ and 650 MHz clock speeds, Rayfield said.

Nvidia has had discussions with 27 potential carrier customers, but hasn’t landed an agreement yet, Rayfield said. The MIDs typically use hard drives in models with 20 GB or more storage, he said. Solid-state drives also are being deployed in MIDs with 4-, 8- and 16-GB storage, while others use SD cards, Rayfield said. The Tegra is being paired with Nvidia’s GeForce graphics processors, but can also be used independently, Rayfield said.

Whether mass demonstrations of Tegra-based MIDs will translate into sales remains to be seen, analysts said. In the MID/netbook market, Nvidia will face competition from Intel, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon and Via Technologies’ Nano. While Nvidia continues to work with Via on a netbook platform pairing its Ion graphics chip with the Nano, the Tegra also could spur competition between the companies, Nvidia executives said. Tegra is being manufactured by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp. using a 65-nanometer process, Rayfield said. While Nvidia claims an edge over Intel’s Atom in power consumption, Tegra may need to be first aimed at markets more receptive to non-Intel processor products, analysts said. Tegra already has scored a non-MID design win in Microsoft’s Zune digital audio player that uses the 2600 chip that operates at 600 MHz, Rayfield said.

Nvidia also recently demonstrated new Lenovo netbooks that are among the first to use its Ion graphics chip. The IdeaPad S12 ($449) features a 12.1-inch LCD, 1.8-GHz Intel Atom processor, 160-GB hard drive, 1-GB DRAM and a 4-in-1 card reader. Samsung is expected to deliver the S510 Ion- equipped netbook in Europe in July featuring a 1.6 GHz Atom processor and a 160 GB hard drive.

Meanwhile, Nvidia sold through its first 10,000-unit allotment of 3-D stereoscopic glasses in March and has experienced strong sales since, a Nvidia spokesman said, declining to disclose unit sales since March. TigerDirect.com was selling the glasses Monday as part of a $1,649 package that includes a Visionman desktop PC with an Intel processor, 4 GB DRAM, 500 GB hard drive and Nvidia GeForce 9800 graphics chip and a 22W Samsung monitor with 1,680x1,050 resolution. A new version of the 22W monitor is expected to ship in the fall with 1,900x1,600 resolution, sources said. Samsung executives weren’t available for comment. Nvidia also has developed an endcap display for the 3-D glasses that will be deployed at select Fry’s Electronics stores in July, an Nvidia spokesman said. Capcom recently showed its initial stereoscopic 3-D PC game, Resident Evil 5, that was the first developed with Nvidia’s GeForce 3-D Vision technology (CED June 25 p4). - Mark Seavy