The Nvidia Tablet Is Hot

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For the last few days, rumors about an Nvidia-made tablet PC based around the Tegra processor have circulated around the Internet. Now Nvidia's given Engadget some straightforward info about the device. The gadget is currently in the prototype phase, and comes in several different sizes. It currently runs Windows CE and uses a resistive touchscreen, although we're likely to see it run the Android OS and feature a capacitive touchscreen when it launches.

This gadget is currently set for a launch roughly around March of 2010. This is extremely exciting, because the images we're seeing of the current prototype look almost identical to the iTablet renders we've been watching for months. While Apple may never actually end up producing such a device, a Tegra-based tablet running Android sounds just as good. If not a little bit better.

Posted on Wed, 11 Nov 2009 12:19:25 CST | by Robert Evans

Nvidia's Fermi Renders Life-Like Faces, Launches Soon

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Today a leak from a Chinese forum has shown us the future of graphics rendering. Electronista reports that detailed advertising shots and information about Nvidia's upcoming Fermi hardware have now hit the web. Fermi should first see the light of day with Nvidia's Geforce 300 series, the first of which could be due out by the end of the year.

The Fermi appears to be capable of rendering hauntingly life-like faces, including realistic stubble and skin that looks almost, almost perfect. The fastest models of the 300 series will pack as many as 512 cores in order to bring this high level of detail to your computer. Notebook versions of the Fermi should also be out soon. The GeForce GTS 360 M is the only notebook chip leaked so far that will be built for high-end performance, but more are sure to follow.

Posted on Fri, 30 Oct 2009 10:16:46 CDT | by Robert Evans

MSI eBook Reader Based On Nvidia Tegra Coming 2010

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eBook readers are soon going to be a standard offering by computer makers. According to Digitimes, MSI chairman Joseph Hsu said that MSI is currently in development of a Nvidia Tegra powered eReader.
Further details about the MSI eBook reader are supposed to be revealed in the first half of 2010. I assume we will see at least a glimpse of the MSI eBook reader at the CES 2010.
Read more

Posted on Tue, 27 Oct 2009 04:00:00 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

NVIDIA GeForce GT220OC and GT210OC Review

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Motherboards published a review of the NVIDIA GeForce GT220OC and GT210OC cards.
Quote from the review: "These are not gaming cards that is the first thing to get out of the way. If you are looking for a fast video card I would suggest looking elsewhere as these cards do not have the performance to run the latest and greatest games without some sacrifice in playability resolution or setting. Read more

Posted on Fri, 16 Oct 2009 15:00:00 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

Nvidia Ion 2 Shipping On Time, Supports Multiple Processors

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If you're planning to pick up a netbook or CULV around the turn of the year, you might be in luck. Electronista has just confirmed that Nvidia's Ion 2 chipset is still expected to ship before the end of 2009. The Ion platform brings superior graphics processing to smaller machines like netbooks. Ion 2 is an extension of this, and one that should come with support for more platforms than its predecessor.

That's right, an Nvidia executive has confirmed that the Ion 2 will support more processors than just the venerable Atom. The Celeron, Core 2, and Pentium processors will all be able to work with Ion 2. That means we'll get to see this chipset make an appearance in a whole bunch of HD-capable CULV notebooks.

Posted on Fri, 9 Oct 2009 10:31:48 CDT | by Robert Evans

Adobe and NVIDIA Deliver Rich Web on Netbooks and Mobiles

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NVIDIA and Adobe have announced that they are bringing rich web experiences to netbooks and mobile devices built using NVIDIA GPUs. Both of the companies have been working with the Open Screen Project to optimize and improve the new Flash Player 10.1 software to use GPU and graphics acceleration on a range of mobile internet devices.

NVIDIA customers like HP, Lenovo, Samsung, Acer, and more will be able to use Adobe 10.1 player on their machines. Adobe says that the use of a NVIDIA GPU and its 10.1 software will let users enjoy rich web applications and interactive content like HD video. Read more

Posted on Mon, 5 Oct 2009 13:00:00 CDT | by Shane McGlaun

NVIDIA Unveils Fermi Next Generation CUDA GPU Architecture

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NVIDIA introduced its next generation CUDA GPU architecture, codenamed Fermi. An entirely new ground-up design, the Fermi architecture is the foundation for the world’s first computational graphics processing units (GPUs), delivering breakthroughs in both graphics and GPU computing.

"NVIDIA and the Fermi team have taken a giant step towards making GPUs attractive for a broader class of programs,” said Dave Patterson, director Parallel Computing Research Laboratory, U.C. Berkeley and co-author of Computer Architecture: A Quantitative Approach. “I believe history will record Fermi as a significant milestone." Read more

Posted on Thu, 1 Oct 2009 04:00:00 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

Acer AspireRevo: Nvidia Ion Graphics For $200

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If you're in the market for a cheap, easy-to-use PC, you might want to take a look at Acer's new AspireRevo nettop PC (via Gizmodo). It packs an Atom 230 1.6 GHz processor, 1 GB of RAM, a 160 GB Hard Drive, and integrated Nvidia Ion LE graphics. Aside from Ion, none of those specs are particularly impressive, even for a nettop.

Posted on Mon, 28 Sep 2009 05:00:00 CDT | by Robert Evans

Nvidia Tegra Smartbooks Coming Q4 2009

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As you've probably heard, people are just a little excited about Tegra. The new chip from Nvidia is capable of rendering high quality video with very low power consumption. The Tegra chip is also an excellent multitasker, which makes it a perfect choice for smartbooks and their ilk. At least, that's what Foxconn (from Digitimes) must have figured when they built an 8.9" smartbook around it.

This new smartbook has already been picked up by telecom providers in Europe and North America, and should arrive in stores before the end of the year. Another smartbook by Compal Communication is also expected to hit this holiday season. Asustek, Quanta, Wistron, and Inventec are all also allegedly working on Tegra-based products.

Posted on Thu, 24 Sep 2009 11:49:24 CDT | by Robert Evans

Samsung M1 Media Player: Powered by Nvidia's Tegra

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Nvidia's new Tegra processor has already garnered a lot of attention due to its place powering the Zune HD. Now Nvidia has announced that the Samsung M1 media player also packs a Tegra HD mobile processor. Considering the M1 also packs an AMOLED screen and offers 720p HD video playback, it appears to be right on par with the Zune HD now.

Nvidia brags that the M1 also has a Flash-based 3D UI, and will launch with a variety of wireless mobile games in 2D and 3D graphics. We have no information on price as of yet, and other than the fact that it has a 3.3" monitor and the aforementioned Tegra chip, no knowledge of the hardware this media player will sport.

Posted on Sat, 5 Sep 2009 12:10:03 CDT | by Robert Evans

Become The NVIDIA CUDA Superhero

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NVIDIA today announced that it will be working with TopCoder, a competitive software development community, on the CUDA Superhero Challenge, a series of contests for computer programmers who will harness the parallel processing power of the NVIDIA CUDA architecture to solve some of computing’s biggest challenges.

CUDA is cool and is supported now in OS X Snow Leopard and on Windows 7. CUDA lets you harness the power of the GPU for other tasks. Like with any cool computer hardware, software is essential that harnesses it is key.

The first contest, which is open to all eligible developers, begins Sept. 14 and will conclude Sept. 25. $5,000 of prizes will be awarded to five contest winners, who will be announced at NVIDIA’s GPU Technology Conference being held at the Fairmont Hotel in San Jose, Calif., from Sept. 30 to Oct. 2, 2009. Read more

Posted on Thu, 27 Aug 2009 09:00:00 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

NVIDIA Touts That Tegra Is Powering The Zune HD

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Today NVIDIA officially announced that their Tegra chip is inside the Zune HD. A thing we already know actually.
"Tegra provides the multimedia muscle in Zune HD," said Michael Rayfield, general manager of NVIDIA’s mobile business. "Users will love the device’s new design, amazing multimedia features and HD video out capability. Zune HD is a must-have for anyone looking for the best portable digital media player on the market."
Read more

Posted on Mon, 17 Aug 2009 09:07:32 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

NVIDIA CUDA Changes Moon Landing Footage to HD

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One of the greatest tragedies in modern science is the loss of the original Apollo moon landing tapes. For years we've been left with only poor-quality tapes-of-tapes of the original broadcast. But now, thanks in part to Nvidia, we can finally watch one of mankind's greatest achievements in glorious high-def.

Lowry Digital used several Nvidia Tesla GPUs with CUDA technology to enhance the original coverage of the landing to HD standards. It's not quite the same as having the original footage of the event intact. Essentially, what Nvidia's machines did is use the existing tape as a substructure around which to drive the animation engine.

Posted on Wed, 5 Aug 2009 15:00:00 CDT | by Robert Evans

NVIDIA Launches Interactive Ray Tracing Engine

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NVIDIA has announced that it has launched the world's first interactive ray tracing engine. The new engine will join the NVIDIA line of application acceleration engines. The application acceleration engines were unveiled at SIGGRAPH 2009 and include the NVIDIA OptiX ray tracing engine, SceniX engine, CompleX engine, and PhysX engine.

The new OptiX ray tracing engine is a programmable ray tracing pipeline that promises to allow software developers to bring new realism to applications using the C programming language. The engine uses the massively parallel power of NVIDIA Quadro processors. Read more

Posted on Wed, 5 Aug 2009 12:00:00 CDT | by Shane McGlaun

AMD, Intel, NVIDIA Gain in Q2

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JPR research has released its numbers for graphics and multimedia firms that are used as an indicator for the PC market. According to the firm Q2 was a good quarter for the companies and the channel is gearing up for robust back to school sales.

The average change from Q1 to Q2 over the last 8 years has been 0.83%. This year the change from Q1 to Q2 was 31.29%. Shipments jumped to 98.3 million units with Intel in the lead with 51.2% of the market, NVIDIA in second with 29.2% of the market and AMD in third with 18.4% of the market. Read more

Posted on Tue, 28 Jul 2009 07:00:00 CDT | by Shane McGlaun

Nvidia Says: No Split With Apple

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Yesterday we reported on some rumors of a split between Apple and Nvidia due to the latter company's quality-control issues. We still haven't heard an official comment from Apple on any of this, but it looks like Nvidia has finally spoken up. Fudzilla spoke to industry sources “close to Nvidia”, who told them that their relationship with Apple was still going strong.

Apple's still buying Nvidia chips, and Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang apparently stated that he has a great deal of respect for the 'fuss maker' apple. As an aside, I really hope that was the actual term Jensen used.

Posted on Fri, 3 Jul 2009 11:00:00 CDT | by Robert Evans

Apple Nixes Nvidia?

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Remember back when a bunch of Nvidia chips failed in MacBooks due to a really simple packaging error? Well apparently that was the straw that broke the back of the relationship between Apple and Nvidia. Dubiously named website Semi-Accurate is reporting that there has been a serious falling out between the gadget maker and the chip designer. The next generation of MacBooks and iMacs will not contain Nvidia chips.

Apparently the split was not a particularly pleasant one. The report states that fairly harsh words were used. Apple's primary issue with Nvidia was due to their quality control issues, which have been rather extensive in the past. Apple apparently told Nvidia to wait '3-4' years before trying to win their business again.

Posted on Thu, 2 Jul 2009 01:30:00 CDT | by Robert Evans

NVIDIA Reveals Samsung Ion-powered Netbook

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NVIDIA is mum on any details of a new netbook model coming from Samsung that sports the NVIDIA Ion platform inside. Big green won’t spill the details like the model name, specs, or pricing. We don’t even know when exactly the little netbook is coming.

All NVIDIA will offer is a confirmation that the netbook is coming and will be running the NVIDIA Ion platform cramming a 9400M GPU into the netbook chassis. Ion-powered netbooks are finally starting to trickle onto the market. Read more

Posted on Wed, 1 Jul 2009 06:12:36 CDT | by Shane McGlaun

NVIDIA Babes show off the Tegra MIDs at Computex 2009

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Earlier today we reported that NVIDIA announced new Tegra based MIDs at the COMPUTEX 2009 in Taipei. The vendor list that built MIDs based on Tegra include no big names, but actually the Tegra devices look nice.
It could be that technology gadgets immediately become more attractive if beautiful models in short skirts are holding them. Read more

Posted on Tue, 2 Jun 2009 08:04:08 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

NVIDIA Ion powers 21 new netbooks, PCs and Devices at COMPUTEX 2009

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NVIDIA seems to really get traction with their Ion platform for netbooks, small PCs and media devices.
NVIDIA Ion is to be found in 21 new products at the COMPUTEX 2009 and the list includes big players like Asus, Acer, Lenovo and MSI, contrary to their current list of Tegra powered MID supporters. Read more

Posted on Tue, 2 Jun 2009 03:25:30 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

12 new HD MIDs powered by NVIDIA Tegra debut at Computex 2009

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NVIDIA announces that 12 new high definition mobile internet devices (MIDs) powered by NVIDIA Tegra debut at COMPUTEX 2009.
This sounds great until we get to the list of manufactures of these new Tegra MIDs. The list does not include a major player. NVIDIA lists Compal Communications, ICD Ultra, Inventec Applications Corp., Mobinnova, Pegatron and Wistron. I only heard about Wistron in the past. Read more

Posted on Tue, 2 Jun 2009 03:16:43 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr