Nvidia brings 3D hardware to smartphones

Posted at: 12:53pm 12th February 2008 by Ben Hardwidge

The AXP 2500 features programmable pixel shaders, coverage-sampled anti-aliasing and OpenGL support

After being burnt by the whole Gizmondo disaster, Nvidia could now give the Nintendo DS a run for its money through the next generation of smartphones. The company has just launched a new ARM processor for Windows Mobile that offers some impressive 3D graphical features, as well as HD video playback.

The AXP 2500 has just been showcased at Mobile World Congress 2008 in Barcelona, and its ULP (Ultra Low Power) GeForce system features programmable pixel shaders, coverage-sampled anti-aliasing (CSAA) and programmable vertex and lighting features. The chip has been developed specifically for Microsoft's Windows Mobile OS, and supports both Direct3D mobile and OpenGL ES 2.0.

Nvidia's president and CEO, Jen-Hsun Huang, said that the chip would enable 'amazing mobile devices, that have all of the rich, visual capabilities of a modern PC - from watching movies and making video calls to surfing the Web and playing 3D games.'

As well as its 3D graphics capabilities, the chip can also playback H.264 video at 720p, and it can output this to a full 1,280 x 720 display using HDMI. Plus, Nvidia reckons that it has any potential worries about battery life nailed too, claiming that it can playback ten hours of HD video on the next generation of Windows Mobile devices.

Nvidia says it worked closely with Microsoft on the chip's development, and hinted that the chip could accelerate a Windows Aero-style system in future Windows Mobile devices. The AXP 2500 is 'the lowest power 3D hardware solution available for acceleration of intuitive 3D user interfaces,' said Nvidia. Meanwhile, Microsoft's corporate vice president of mobile communication, Todd Warren, said that 'we are delighted to work with Nvidia to offer our users an amazing visual experience on the next-generation Windows Mobile phones.'