The shadow of CES 2010 looms ever closer, and smartbooks are expected to feature prominently. What non-Intel chipsets they will be running remains far less certain. Qualcomm, Freescale and Nvidia are expected to be in the mix with ARM-based platforms, and Nvidia is already starting to crank up the hype.
Speaking at the Barclays Technology Conference late last week, Nvidia senior vice president of investor relations and communications Michael Hara claimed its Tegra family is ready for a big year.
“At CES we are going to make a major announcement about Tegra family,” Xbit Laboratories quotes Hara as saying. “It is highly possible that we will see some very interesting form-factors coming out at the same time. [There will be products] shown by our partners using the next-generation Tegra device. You are going to see roll-outs and deployments of tablet PCs, smartbooks, netbooks, MIDs throughout the first half [of the year]; and then you will see major roll-outs of smartphones in the second half.”
Now there isn’t a lot of meat on those bones, but it is interesting to see Nvidia specifically separate the netbook and smartbook categories, which are still mixed up by manufacturers at large. This shouldn’t be surprising however given Nvidia’s previous confirmation that it is “working closely with Google” on hardware to best exploit Chrome OS.
As for Tegra 2 itself, little is known other than it is widely rumored to be up to twice as powerful as its predecessor, with even less power draw. This would be some feat, as Tegra 1’s most high profile use to date is in the Microsoft Zune HD, which can play back 720p high definition video and lasts up to an impressive 8.5 and 33 hours running video and music respectively.
Sounds to us like the smartbook stakes have just been raised, and we can’t wait to see how Nvidia’s rivals reply.
Gordon
