2 - Nvidia's Tegra

The first fully integrated 'computer on a chip' product from Nvidia

The news that Nvidia would begin making CPUs has raised plenty of eyebrows, partly because of its current argument with Intel over which direction the GPU market will go in the future. Nvidia believes that the GPU can be used for more than just graphics, and the company has been spending a lot of time talking up CUDA, its C-like programming language for modern GPUs. Part of the reason for its shift in thinking is Intel’s Larrabee project, the devleopment of a new product based on multiple X86 core processors, which will be used for, among other things, graphics. Faced with this, Nvidia is looking to add more flexibility to its graphics products in order to compete in the future.


How does Tegra fit in? It's Nvidia’s first assault on the CPU market, and rather than go up against the more established Intel and AMD in the desktop CPU market, they have created a low power ‘computer on a chip’ which is aimed at bringing a better multimedia experience to mobile devices. Two variants of Tegra have been announced so far, the APX 2500, which is aimed at smartphones, and the 600 series, which is a more powerful set of hardware targeting netbooks. Tegra 600 consists of an 800MHz ARM architecture CPU, and an 'Ultra Low Power (ULP) GeForce chipset', which will allow mobile devices to run 3D applications, and a variety of processors for audio and video, which Nvidia promises will allow the Tegra series to deliver full H264, HD 1080p video playback.


The ARM architecture is a RISC product originally developed by Acorn; ARM chips are frequently used in mobile phones such as the iPhone, and popular mobile operating systems (Symbian, Windows Mobile and so forth) all support this ISA. This is because it offers excellent battery life - by adding multimedia power to it, Nvidia may well be on to a winner, although as Tegra was only announced in June, the first products are still some way off.

For more details, see Nvidia's site.

• Tidy your cables
• Modify an MSI Wind
• Hide your ATX power cables
• Monitor your PC with an analogue meter
• Cool your VRMs
• Make your own SSD for less than £20
• Create a 3D animated Logo
• Set up a secure browsing environment
• Remove motherboard heatsinks and heatpipes
• Remove a GPU cooler

These are the most popular features articles over the past three months.

• Intel Core i7 - all you need to know
• VIDEO: 6GHz plus: Overclocking the E8600 with liquid nitrogen
• How to add any song to Guitar Hero 3
• The FAIL Feature
• How to get a cooler Radeon HD 4870 with manual fan speed control
• Interview with Hardcore Computer: The quest for a full immersion cooled desktop PC
• Ten Technologies that can Revolutionise PCs
• VIDEO: Dream PCs 2008: Scan's Great White
• Inside Intel's SSD
• Wishlist for a next-gen EeePC