Windows Mobile to get pumped up on Nvidia
Watch out, Nvidia is stalking the iPhone. The maker of fast graphics processors will apply its chip know-how to juice up the mobile internet device market and the Windows Mobile interface.
Nvidia APX 2500-based Windows Mobile device has flick-and-roll interface
(Credit: Nvidia)As reported back in February, after a decade of pumping up PC performance, Nvidia is betting a big part of its future on boosting graphics performance in fit-in-your-pocket mobile internet devices (MIDs).
CNET Video of APX 2500 prototype here.
iPhone-style devices with Nvdia's APX 2500 system-on-a-chip--due late this year and next year--incorporate most of the functionality of a PC. (See block diagram.) And it is important to note that Nvidia is building all of the core electronics that will run a mobile internet device, not just the graphics component.
The APX 2500 is different from Intel's Atom processor platform--which is offered as a processor and a separate chipset--because the 2500 integrates everything onto one piece of silicon. This makes it more akin to Intel's upcoming Moorestown processor that's due next year or early 2010.
Nvidia's goal is to pack as much processing punch as possible into a few-hundred-milliwatt power envelope, said Michael Rayfield, general manager of the Mobile Business Unit. "I said start from zero. And then made my team beg and plead for every milliwatt," he said. Notebook PC processors typically operate in power envelopes between 10 and 35 watts.
But to the user, the biggest difference will be Microsoft's Mobile Windows interface and what can happen when there is Nvidia GeForce graphics silicon pushing everything around.
The platform that Nvidia is demonstrating goes far beyond the staid, pin-striped Windows Mobile that is used today. Nvidia is showing finger-flick-and-roll screens and accelerometer-based reorienting 720p video.
These tiny devices are designed to run 720p HDTV video for 10 hours--one of the marquee features that Nvidia will be emphasizing, Rayfield said. He plugged a prototype APX 2500-based device into a large screen TV via a High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) connector and played high-definition movies with the same fluidity and resolution as you get from a big HDTV box or bigger computer.
Nvidia APX 2500 block diagram
(Credit: Nvidia)All on, believe it or not, Windows Mobile. The operating system has struggled since its inception back in 2000. Initially, it had promise on Compaq (and later Hewlett-Packard) iPaq handhelds, but these devices never appealed to a large base, even in corporate America which eventually went en masse for the Blackberry. There is more acceptance now as Windows Mobile 6.1 is adopted by companies like HTC, Samsung, and Acer (which announced its intention to bring out a Windows smartphone)--but it is still Windows. In a post-iPhone world, Nvidia says this is not adequate.
The prototype mobile internet device that Nvidia is currently working on is not the product that will appear from phone companies or navigation device vendors. Rayfield said it is necessarily a thick device and contains extra circuit boards because it is a development platform. The final product made by device manufacturers will be thin, he said.
Nvidia APX 2500-based Windows Mobile device interface
(Credit: Nvidia)
Brooke Crothers has served as an editor at large at CNET News, an editor at Dow Jones' Asian Wall Street Journal Weekly, and a senior editor at InfoWorld. His CNET blog covers chip technology and computer systems, and how they define the computing experience. He also contributes to The New York Times' Bits and Technology sections. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure. Follow Brooke on Twitter @mbrookec. 
-- How can you say that Windows Mobile has "struggled?" As of Q4 2007, Windows Mobile has greater smartphone market share than the Blackberry and the iPhone.
-- You make it sound like HTC is the only mobile handset manufacturer selling Windows Mobile phones. Samsung, Sony Ericsson and Motorola all make Windows Mobile handsets, too.
-- "But it is still Windows" -- nice, unbiased reporting.
Do some basic research before spreading misinformation, CNET!
-Mister Winky
I don't think the article was biased at all, from the same page you referenced it is clear that Windows Mobile is way behind Symbian which leads all others with a 65% share. Now that said, when comparing the Windows Mobile share to the IPhone , don't forget that the IPhone is barely over a year old where as Windows mobile deviceS (a whole suite of them from many different manufacturers unlike the one IPhone coming from Apple) have been out for almost a decade. Yes, the manufacturers you mentioned do make windows mobile devices and it is still Windows on each, there is only so much customization of the base OS that they can do to make distinctions between the interface. The fact that the IPhone is already at 80% of all the Windows Mobile devices entire share says much about how much domination it is doing (of everything not just Windows Mobile devices). As for Blackberry, they are retooling their products to make them more consumer friendly so I would expect their share to either stand still or rise slightly compared to windows mobile over the next few years. All that said, the Nvidia chip is the right way to look at powering these devices, integrated and efficient design provides the greatest bang for the buck, I can't wait to see how the devices that will use it will compare to the IPhone.
- by Mister Winky May 9, 2008 12:09 AM PDT
- No, the article is biased and takes cheap shots at Windows for no purpose. Did you miss the snarky digs at Windows? They are unprofessional and unnecessary.
- Like this Reply to this comment
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(4 Comments)After listing the new features that nVidia's chips will add to the next generation of Windows Mobile phones, the author adds "All on, believe it or not, Windows Mobile." Why is that so hard to believe?
Later, the author says Windows Mobile 6.1 is gaining acceptance, then adds "but it is still Windows." What does this mean? A cheap shot, through and through.
Blackberrys have been around longer than Windows Mobile devices (1997 vs. 2000), and they still lag (slightly) in market share. Given that fact, why can it it be said the Blackberrys are doing well while Windows Mobile is "struggling?" It's poor reporting -- no facts and no depth, just opinion.
MS bashing is en vogue among techies even when there is no basis for it. It may be cool and trendy to bash Windows, but Windows still has 90%+ market share in the personal computing world and almost any company in America would kill for the success MS and Windows have experienced over the last 20 years. Igorning or making light of that fact is a sign of poor reporting and personal bias.
-Mister Winky