nvidia

Microsoft is providing Windows 8 test PCs based on silicon from Qualcomm and Nvidia in an invitation-only seeding program.

The two chip suppliers are working with Microsoft to provide test PCs to select developers to test and optimize apps for future Windows on ARM PCs and tablets, both companies announced today.

Windows 8 marks the first time that a mainstream Windows operating system will run on processors from ARM chip suppliers in addition to those from Intel and AMD.

In Qualcomm's case, a pre-release version of Windows on ARM will run on a PC with a Snapdragon S4 MSM8960 … Read more

Nvidia's Tegra 3 processor will be making an appearance on a host of mobile devices this year, and when that happens, it will no longer come with its clumsy architecture branding.

The chipmaker announced yesterday that it has ditched "variable symmetric multiprocessing," "companion core," and even "ninja core," to describe Tegra 3's architecture. Nvidia will now describe it as the "4-Plus-1" architecture.

"The reason is that, the more popular this technology became, the more our customers wanted a name for it that's unique and descriptive," Nvidia wrote … Read more

ZTE's Android efforts will continue with the ZTE Mimosa X, a mid-range Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich smartphone that we can expect to see in the second quarter of 2012...somewhere. ZTE hasn't announced a market just yet, but this is a phone we should hear more about at Mobile World Congress next week.

The Mimosa X will have a 4.3-inch qHD screen (that's a 960x540-pixel resolution) a 5-megapixel camera, a front-facing camera, and an expandable memory slot capable of 32GB.

It will also include HD video capture and playback are also on-board, along with … Read more

Nvidia is eying a market for inexpensive dual-core smartphones that underprice the iPhone 4S by a wide margin.

That phone segment, which the graphics chipmaker calls the "1,000 RMB phone" in China, will use Nvidia's dual-core Tegra 2 processor paired with a 3G modem, according to Chief Executive Officer Jen-Hsun Huang, who spoke during the earnings conference call this afternoon. RMB refers to the Chinese currency.

RMB 1,000 is about 75 percent less than the price of an iPhone 4S, which currently retails for RMB 4,988 in China.

"That's a pretty exciting … Read more

Despite the fact that Nvidia is keeping mum about which devices will feature its Tegra 3 processor at Mobile World Conference, a recent leak suggests that a new high-end LG phone may be in for consideration.

According to MoDaCo.com, the LG X3 is slated to appear at MWC sporting a 4.7-inch HD screen, a 2000 mAh battery, and (most impressively) a quad-core processor.… Read more

Will Apple's next iPad reach performance nirvana with a monster quad-core chip? Nirvana, maybe, but not necessarily via quad-core.

But let's put aside whether Apple's latest chip will be quad-core for a minute and look at what others are doing. (See a post at The Verge on this topic too.)

One of the leading lights among ARM processor suppliers is Texas Instruments. They've made it clear that they're not going quad-core this year and not even next year (necessarily) with their first next-gen OMAP5 chips.

In a CES demo, TI showed off the next-gen OMAP5 … Read more

Nvidia is one company that isn't being meek about its wares. Instead, its press invitation to Mobile World Congress shouts "quad-core" from the rooftops.

The chip-maker is properly veiling the actual products powered by its Tegra 3 processor, instead proclaiming that "quad-core firsts continue at MWC." Since the first "first" was a quad-core tablet, it doesn't take much deductive power to reason out that this show will spotlight smartphones.… Read more

Nvidia and Rambus have settled a longstanding patent license dispute.

The agreement covers a "broad range" of chip products offered by Nvidia and settles all outstanding claims, including resolution of past use of Rambus' patented innovations, the companies said. The term of the agreement is five years.

Though neither financial nor technological details were disclosed, the dispute between the two companies has not exactly been private.

In 2008, Rambus sued Nvidia, accusing the graphics chip supplier of violating 17 Rambus-held patents on memory controllers. At that time, Rambus claimed that chipsets, graphics processers, and media communication processors across … Read more

So, does AMD have a solid Windows 8 tablet strategy this year? I'll let the reader decide, but AMD needs to be extra aggressive on the power-efficient chip front because it's not just an Intel-AMD fight now.

Windows 8 will bring ARM chip players like Texas Instruments, Qualcomm, Nvidia, and Freescale into the market, presenting AMD with plenty of heavyweight Windows competition.

Earlier in the week, I spoke with John Taylor, director of client product marketing and software at AMD, who cited two major chip designs for tablets, Hondo (2012) and Temash (2013). AMD now calls its chips … Read more