Nvidia Announces Power-Efficient Tegra Chips For MIDs

Graphics chipmaker, Nvidia, announced a series of chips targeting the small, fast devices. With this announcement, the company has joined the ranks of Intel and VIA.

The company spokesperson said that the company’s new processors — Tegra 600 and Tegra 650 — and the earlier APX2500 that is used in mobile handsets and smartphones, will now also be used in devices referred to as mobile Internet devices or MIDs.

Smaller than a pence, the Tegra chips would have an all-in-one structure and will use an ARM 11 CPU core; they are expected to consume very little power and would include a media processor, a graphics processing unit, system memory, and peripherals, said Mike Rayfield, GM, Nvidia Mobile Business.

The Tegra 650 chip would also support WSXGA+ LCD and CRT, NTSC/PAL TV-out, and 1080p HDMI along with providing direct support for disk drives, keyboards, Wi-Fi, and other peripherals.

Furthermore, the Tegra chips are 10 times as power efficient as their competitors because of the chips’ low-power architecture; devices enabled with these chips would be capable of 120-hour audio or 30-hour video playback before recharging.

The Tegra processors are expected to enter the market by the end of 2008.