Nvidia Tegra 2 – good news for smartbooks and tablets

Although many new tablets and smartbooks were launched these last days, and probably more are to come in the next days at CES, most of those use Qualcomm’s SnapDragon platform, one that really can’t praise its overall performance levels. Luckily, future sounds better for such devices now, as Nvidia unveiled specs for their next generation Tegra 2 platform, especially built for mobile gadgets.

In already had the chance to play with the first Tegra on Microsoft’s Zune HD and the little device could easily run 720p content. Now, Nvidia claims their Tegra 2 is actually up to 4 times better than the predecessor.

Nvidia's Tegra 2 architecture

So, Tegra 2 will bundle ARM based chipset with processors up to 1 GHz and HD graphic solutions from Nvidia. It will be able to play 1080p content, some 3D games and will support Flash Player 10.1 hardware acceleration, while being less power hungry than Qualcomm’s solution.

Tegra 2 perforamnces compared to main rivals

Nvidia plans to use Tegra 2 mainly on tablets and smartphones, but some producers might implement it on smartbooks and even netbooks. In terms of raw CPU performance, it won’t be able to compete with the ATOMs, since this is more a multimedia oriented platform meant for HD content and 3D gaming. The fact that the platform won’t offer support for Windows XP or 7 signals that Tegra 2 is not intended for the netbooks’ market; it will support however Windows CE, Windows Mobile and Android .

So, stay tuned for some very interesting tablets, smartphones and multimedia players this year. Announces should start popping in the next weeks and we should see the first Tegra 2 based devices on the market by the end of spring.

Source:  Anandtech and NetbookChoice

Tags: Nvidia Tegra, smartbook, touch tablet