The idea’s pretty straightforward – Mirics leverages NVIDIA CUDA-enabled GPUs to help execute certain video decoding algorithms – thereby freeing up CPU resources for other activities and removing any need for additional hardware. This is a boon for low-end, low-cost systems which might not normally have the necessary horsepower to decode HD video. With this solution, users will be able to enjoy global TV reception – both in SD and in HD resolutions – on low end systems – even on netbooks

The FlexiTV solution is currently sampling to select customers and will be demoed at the NVIDIA Emerging Companies Summit being held right now in San Jose.

[Check it out]

Technorati Tags: Mirics, FlexiTV, NVIDIA CUDA

Well it’s about time. Several months after NVIDIA announced the ION platform, we finally have our first third party implementation in the form of the Acer AspireRevo. This tiny box features an Intel Atom processor coupled with an NVIDIA GeForce 9400M chipset which basically means you’ll finally be able to do full HD (1080p) video decoding on an Atom powered system. Other niceties with the AspireRevo include:

• 7.1 channel sound
• HDMI output
• VGA port
• Six USB 2.0 ports (four in the back and two in the front)
• Memory card reader
• eSATA port
• Up to 4GB of RAM
• Up to 250GB of storage
• Measures 180 x 1870 x 30 mm

Curiously, Ubergizmo reports that the AspireRevo comes with an Intel N230 processor instead of the N270. Hopefully the N270 will also be an option down the road. No word on prices as of yet.

[Check it out]

Read this in Chinese Simplified and in French

Technorati Tags: Acer AspireRevo, NVIDIA ION

According to Doug Freedman, an analyst at Broadpoint AmTech, this might very well be the case. Freedman believes Microsoft is working on a Windows Mobile handset design featuring the NVIDIA Tegra chip and that this handset could show its face in the next six months or so. If this speculation is true, it would be NVIDIA’s second Tegra design win after HTC.

Since the rumor first was reported on News.com, Microsoft has officially responded by denying such a rumor and stating:

“Microsoft has no plans to make a phone..Our core focus has been and will continue to be providing software plus services and working with our partners to deliver great phones. Our partners have been integral in our success to date, and we are excited about the innovation we are bringing to the market together.”

I would tend to agree that Microsoft will stay away from the branding business when it comes to mobile handsets. Its Windows Mobile business is certainly an important (and probably lucrative) one and any Microsoft-branded phone would certainly stress existing business relationships – not to mention push third party hardware manufacturers to other alternatives (and there are plenty to choose from these days).

So what of this rumor? We’re betting this turns out to be a new reference design for a future handset that could be made by a number of hardware vendors. The real winner in such a handset design would be NVIDIA which has been trying to break into the mobile handset business for some time now.  Truth is – having an NVIDA chip inside a Windows Mobile is only one half of the equation. The rest would have to lie in major usability improvements to Windows Mobile.

[Check it out]

Technorati Tags: Microsoft, NVIDIA, Tegra, Windows Mobile handset

This is where NVIDIA’s new Ion platform is so incredibly important. Ion takes the Intel Atom processor and couples it with the GeForce 9400M chipset resulting in a system capable of playing 3D games and high definition video content.

I saw demos of the Ion platform firsthand at CES 2009 last month and I have to admit – I was sold on the idea.

Unfortunately I didn’t get a chance to actually benchmark the platform so I had no real idea what to expect performance number wise from the system. Luckily, it appears the NDA for the Ion platform has been lifted resulting in several websites releasing performance reviews of the new platform.

First up, we have the folks from Anandtech who received a white colored reference system from NVIDIA. Here’s a snippet from the review:

“Ion addresses one of Atom’s primary deficiencies – poor graphics performance. It can’t, however, make Atom something it’s not. It’s faster to use Photoshop on Ion than on any of the current Atom platforms, but I still don’t want to. It’s better to play games on the Ion than on a regular Atom system, but it’s not fun to. “

Moving on, the folks at LaptopMag had this to say about the Ion platform:

“Assuming Ion doesn’t take too heavy a toll on battery life, and that it doesn’t add too much to the cost of these very price-sensitive machines, Nvidia’s platform could very well redefine netbooks.”

Finally, there’s a review of the platform over at PC Perspective which has this to say:

“This is not a product that will win over everyone’s heart – gaming is okay, but not great, power consumption is still questionable and costs will go up – but I think more people will give the netbook market a look once they start to see ION-based products hitting the shelves. And of course NVIDIA is not only aiming for the netbook market; I would love to see ION-based platforms show up in larger, lower-cost laptops in the 12-15″ screen size range as well as in basic HTPC designs. ”

Clearly the Ion platform is a good thing for the Atom processor. We’ll get better 3D graphics performance, better video decoding performance, and of course, a better overall PC experience. Graphics and/or video intensive applications will receive a noticeable boost in performance on the Atom platform and even Windows Vista will become usable on the platform.

Yet despite the improvements, there are still questions to be answered – such as pricing and power consumption. However a bigger issue may arise out of the success of the Ion platform. Solving the graphics shortcomings with the GeForce 9400M chipset will ultimately push the focus of the customer back to the deficiencies of the Atom processor. Hopefully this will spur Intel and others to develop higher performing, yet low power and inexpensive processors.

Technorati Tags: NVIDIA Ion, Intel Atom, NVIDIA GeFoce 9400M Chipset

Alienware announced today that their Area-51 m15x notebook will now offer the NVIDIA Quadro FX 3600M GPU – making the notebook an ideal platform for creative professionals looking for graphics performance in OpenGL 2.1, Shader Model 4.0, and DirectX 10. The Area-51 m15x has the following specs:

• Choice of Intel Core 2 Duo or Intel Core 2 Extreme Processor
• Intel GM965 Chipset
• Up to 4GB RAM
• HDMI connector
• 5400 or 7200 RPM HDD
• Optical drive
• Intel PRO Wi-Fi
• Bluetooth 2.0
• Gigabit Ethernet
• 7.1 channel HD audio
• Two speakers
• 3 USB 2.0 ports
• ExpressCard/54mm slot
• FireWire port
• 7 in 1 Media Card Reader
• 15.4 inch widescreen display
• Measures 14.55 x 10.73 x 1.3 inches and weighs 7 lbs

Alienware also offers the NVIDIA Quadro FX 1600M on the Area-51 m9750 and soon will make the NVIDIA Quadro FX 3600M available on the Area-51 m17x.

Technorati Tags: Alienware Area-51 m15x, NVIDIA Quadro FX 3600M

[Check it out]

Technorati Tags: NVIDIA, Intel, Atom, VIA

Think general purpose microprocessors have high transistor counts? Think again folks! NVIDIA has unveiled their latest family of GeForce GTX 200 GPUs and these bad boys have a TON of transistors – 1.4 billion transistors to be roughly exact. Making up the GTX 200 family are two processors – the high end GTX 280 and the mid-range GTX 260. The new GPUs are basically the same processor with the GTX 280 having all the capabilities enabled and the GTX 260 having some of the capabilities disabled.

With the new GTX 200 series of GPUs, NVIDIA is stating that bigger is indeed better – at least for the high end graphics world. They’ve packed a ton of horse power into a single die – resulting in a processor which is bound to be super large and power hungry. Thus – don’t expect graphic cards using the GTX 200 processors to be small in size. Heck you might even need a PSU upgrade.

Now contrast this with ATI’s philosophy which boils down to multi-processors for scalability. They’re keeping their designs small and fairly compact – hoping to tack on more processors if the demands are needed. In fact, AMD has pretty much conceded the high end graphics market to NVIDIA, instead focusing on delivering near high end performance at mid-range costs.

With the new GTX 280 based cards expected to cost around $650 and GTX 260 cards around $400, one has to wonder if these processors are worth it? Well, the reviews thus far have been somewhat mixed. One thing is certain – the GTX 200 is definitely the fastest processor even designed by NVIDIA. However, many of also found that current 9800 GX2 cards are just as fast if not faster than the single GPU GTX 280. Another interesting observation found in the reviews: The GTX 260 is the better bargain between the two new GPUs simply because you get 15-25 % performance degradation at a 40% cost reduction.

For more “light” reading, check out the early reviews from:

• ExtremeTech
• Anandtech
• TechReport
• HotHardware
• PCWorld
• Guru3D
• Hexus.net
• Maximum PC

Technorati Tags: NVIDA GeForce GTX 200, GTX 280, GTX 260

The new processor family is actually headlined by a processor that was introduced earlier in the year called the APX 2500 which was targeted for smartphones and hadnset devices. The new addition announced today is the NVIDIA Tegra 650 processor which is targeting the MID and portable device space. Inside the 650 you actually get multiple processors designed for specific tasks.

The core to the Tegra 650 is an 800 MHz ARM processor. Surrounding this processor are additional processors for HD video, imaging, audio, and graphics. According to NVIDIA, the Tegra 650 achieves up to 10 times the power efficiency of existing products in battery operated computer systems.

Features of the Tecra 650 include the following:

• All-day media processing, for 130 hours audio, 30 hours HD video playback
• HD image processing for advanced digital still camera and HD camcorder functions
• Optimized hardware support for Web 2.0 applications for a true desktop-class internet experience
• Display support for 1080p HDMI, WSXGA+ LCD and CRT, and NTSC/PAL TV-Out
• Direct support for WiFi, disk drives, keyboard, mouse, and other peripherals
• A complete Board Support Package (BSP) to enable fast times to market for Windows Mobile-based designs

For those curious about the ARM core, the Tecra 650 is based on the ARM11 MPCore multicore processor technology. The ARM11 can be configured to contain between one and four processors delivering up to an aggregate of 2600 Dhrystone MIPS of performance. You can read more about the ARM11 MPCore here on Arm’s website.

[Check it out]

Technorati Tags: NVIDIA, Tegra, ARM

Looking for a super fast new video card for that PC of yours? You might want to check out this review of the XFX 9800GTX Black Edition Video Card over at I4U.com. The card features an NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GTX GPU clocked at 760 MHz. Other specs include:

• Support Dual Link DVI for up to 2560 x 1600
• 1900 MHz Shader Clock speed
• 512MB RAM
• PCIe 2.0
• Dual 400MHz RAMDACs
• H.264, MPEG-2 and WMV Hardware Acceleration
• HD MPEG-2 Hardware Acceleration
• Integrated HDTV encoder

Here’s the verdict from I4U.com:

If you are looking for the best performing 9800 GTX, the XFX 9800 GTX Black Edition is it.

[Check it out]

Technorati Tags: XFX 9800GTX Black Edition Video Card, I4U.com, Review

In case you missed it last week, Jen-Hsun Huang, CEO of NVIDIA, did a little rant (or shall we say whining?) about Intel Corporation. To no one’s real surprise, Mr. Huang was a bit defensive about the state of the graphics industry and was pretty peeved about how an Intel graphics and gaming "technologist" was calling discrete graphics cards "unnecessary."  Jen-Hsun used NVIDIA’s financial analyst day last Thursday as a way to dish it out against Intel and their marketing machine. Here’s a quote from News.com cited:

"We don’t typically like to do this. It’s just that we’ve been taking it and taking it and taking it. Every single frickin’ day. Are you allowed to say that word? Every day all over the world. Enough is enough."

So NVIDIA isn’t planning to take it anymore. OK.. but is there something more to this perhaps? Why take time out from a financial analyst meeting to go complain about your partner/enemy in Intel? I mean, come on now, we’re talking about Intel’s integrated graphics solutions. Does NVIDIA really have something to worry about? Well.. in a word, yes. Why you might ask? It’s not your younger self’s graphics world anymore. It’s certainly not a world where it’s NVIDIA against ATI or any other smaller vendor. NVIDIA finds itself suddenly very much alone in the graphics market with ATI now belonging to AMD. It’s now NVIDIA vs. Intel/AMD ironically enough. Yet, NVIDIA has chosen to set it’s sights on Intel. Why? because of the path that Intel is working towards.

First a little background. I was part of the original Intel 740 team way back when Intel was still trying to figure out how to compete against NVIDIA, ATI, and 3dfx (remember them?). At that time (around ‘97/98), Intel had teamed up with Real3D and Chips and Technologies to design and create the Intel 740. The 740 was actually Intel’s third attempt at getting into the graphics market and there was much hope in the company that it would indeed succeed.

After a few delays, the Intel 740 came out to less than stellar reviews yet it did do one important thing to the graphics market – it paved the way towards cheap graphics. With a large inventory of 740 processors, Intel realized the only way to clear things out would be to sell them for low prices to third party board manufacturers which of course led to super cheap 3D graphics boards. The other effect the 740 and the follow-on projects created was the realization by Intel that it needed to bring graphics to the motherboard chipset – paving the way for Intel’s integrated graphics efforts that would eventually make them the largest supplier of graphics in the world.

Why take the integrated graphics route? It boiled down to economics really.

1. Intel makes a ton of money selling chipsets and I do mean a ton. Most of you think of Intel as a general processor company but consider the following – for every Intel processor sold, it’s very likely you’ll also find an Intel motherboard chipset inside. Selling graphics is no sure thing. Selling motherboard chipsets is a far easier task for Intel to accomplish so why not fold graphics into the chipset.

2. Intel discovered long ago that it could not compete from a design, development and manufacturing standpoint with the likes of NVIDIA and ATI. The smaller companies are more nimble and can execute on newer designs much more quickly. Yet being fast and nimble also means you might not have the best optimized processes in place. Intel executes well on established processes which ultimately results in higher profit margins. If a product doesn’t deliver roughly 40-50 percent profit margins, you likely won’t find Intel in it.

3. Finally, Intel realized that the CPU had much more room to spare in terms of processing capabilities. Let’s face it – today’s (or yesterday’s) applications really don’t stress the CPU. (That’s why Microsoft has Vista – an OS that can only run reasonably well on a modern processor!) It’s a conspiracy of course but most of you know that already. Intel, AMD, and Microsoft are constantly looking for ways to get consumers and businesses to upgrade their hardware and software. How do you convince consumers of this? Push the existing computing platforms to the limit which results in consumers saying "Gee.. I need a new computer." So what can Intel do to increase the load on a CPU? Make the processor do more graphics chores by integrating graphics to the chipset. As Intel adds more and more cores to their CPU, there becomes less of a need for a secondary graphics processing unit (GPU).

OK.. so this brings us back to the original rant from NVIDIA’s CEO. Was it justified? Perhaps.. perhaps not. Yeah he’s sick of Intel’s claims and marketing hype. We all know integrated graphics can’t keep up with discrete graphics right now. Yet people (a.k.a. regular consumers) aren’t aware of this so they’ll stick with whatever comes with their systems. So what’s a CEO to do? I suppose in NVIDIA’s case, it’s to whine but NVIDIA needs to continue pushing the envelope and in many ways, play the same games that Intel and AMD plays.

NVIDIA needs to continue executing at a rapid clip. It needs to stay ahead of Intel while at the same time convincing consumers to add in NVIDIA graphics to their systems. This translates to a much larger marketing presence for NVIDIA. It means working with many more graphics software vendors and constantly staying two to three steps ahead of Intel.

It’s going to be hard of course because as Loyd Case points out in this article, software based shaders will only get faster as CPUs get faster. Someday, a general purpose processor with multiple cores and integrated graphics will be all a consumer needs unless important graphics applications and games have a specific need for NVIDIA capabilities (hence why NVIDIA hopes people will program to their GPUs).

So NVIDIA – stop complaining and execute in a timely manner. Things will certainly get harder for NVIDIA but the company needs to stay ahead by innovating and creating useful products.

Technorati Tags: Intel, NVIDIA

Here’s a rarity for me – a posting about a graphics card. Yeah.. I must say that I don’t follow the PC graphics industry as close as I used to. This is mostly because I don’t find myself gaming on the PC anymore. If there’s any gaming to be done in my household, it’s nearly all on the Xbox 360 console. Sorry to disappoint there!

However, with that said, I’ve been looking for a nice inexpensive upgrade for the integrated graphics found in my HP system (which I know I’ve yet to review here). There are definitely many options for me to choose from these days – everything from low end NVIDIA GeForce 8600 based cards to the Radeon HD 3850’s. The latest cards that are peaking my interest are based on the new NVIDIA G94 chip. An example of this can be found in eVGA’s GeForce 9600 GT SSC graphics card which is reviewed over at ExtremeTech.com. According to ExtremeTech, the GeForce 9600 GT SSC is similar to the G92 based GeForce 8800 GT graphics cpu except there’s a reduction in the number of shader units (down to 64) but higher clock speeds and a nice large 256 bit wide memory interface.

Here’s what they thought of the graphics card from eVGA:

EVGA’s factory-overclocked SSC model breaks the $200 barrier, but it still delivers a whole lot of bang for the buck.

A card in the $200 dollar price range with solid performance – definitely something to look at in the coming months for me.

[Check it out]

Technorati Tags: eVGA, GeForce 9600 GT SSC, ExtremeTech, Review