Nvidia Developing Tegra ICs to Drive On-Screen Displays

Internet-capable, flat-panel TVs may eventually join tablet PCs and smartbooks as targets for Nvidia’s second-generation Tegra 250 processor-graphics chipset, which will ship in products this year, Bill Henry, the company’s director of Tegra product management, told us.

The Tegra 250 replaces the Tegra 650 as Nvidia shifts development to Google’s Android operating system from Microsoft’s Windows CE and switches to a dual-core 2 GHz ARM processor from a 600 MHz ARM-11 chip. The Tegra 250 moves to 1080p capability from 720p and is based on Nvidia’s new 40-nanometer-based Fermi platform, company officials said.

While the chip is designed for mobile products, Nvidia also has received interest from CE companies wanting to use it to drive on-screen displays. While a Tegra chip wouldn’t replace a TV’s main video processor for deinterlacing and scaling, it could take charge of Internet connections, Henry said. Tegra chips aren’t likely to appear in TVs until 2011, he said.

"We are kicking off a good number of projects with the TV guys,” Henry said. “It’s just a natural to actually build it into the device. Tegra could be built into a module for specific applications, he said. “We take video input from a camera perfectly, but taking it from various different tuners, it’s not ideal,” Henry said. A Tegra-based user interface could be used to control Internet connections as well as brightness controls and “tuning parameters,” he said.

The first test of Tegra’s 1080p video capability will likely come in online video provider Boxee’s Box set-top box, which will be marketed by D-Link. The $299 set-top, expected to be available by midyear, features the Tegra 250 chip and 1 GB of storage. Assembled by Quanta Computer, it will provide access to Boxee’s service, which is expected to add a premium pay tier. A key feature of the Tegra 2 chip will be its low power consumption. The bar for Tegra’s power consumption was set at 500 milliwatts, enough to deliver 1080p video, Henry said. If Wi-Fi access is combined with 1080p video power consumption climbs to one watt, he said.

The major change for Tegra 250-based devices will be the shift to Android. Nvidia is working to make Adobe’s 10.1 flash technology compatible with the OS, Henry said. Touchscreen-based products are to ship from a range of suppliers, he said. Chinese OEM BYD is building a tablet PC for Viewsonic with an 8.9-inch LCD with 1,024x800 resolution, 8 or 16 GB storage, 0.3-megapixel camera and WiFi b/g/n. It has been priced in China at $441. Asustek also is readying the Asus Eee tablet PC, which will be built by Pegatron with an 8.9-inch LCD. And T-Mobile UK will sell Innovate Converged Devices’ smartbook with a 15-inch display. Smartbooks combine a PC with 3G mobile broadband. Besides BYD and Pegatron, Foxconn and Compal are expected to make Tegra-equipped devices.

The Tegra chips were introduced last year with Windows CE devices such as Mobinova’s Elan tablet PC. But Windows CE touch screen capability was found lacking, Henry said.

"We are still working with Microsoft, but they have work to do to bring” Windows CE “forward,” Henry said. Windows Mobile’s touchscreen technology needs to be developed for larger LCDs, he said. Tegra was built last year into Microsoft’s Zune HD digital audio player. Microsoft has “good infrastructure, tools and assets and the moment they decide to pull that all together they can have a really powerful solution in the marketplace,” Henry said. But “Android is where it’s at right now."

Nvidia’s shift to Android was strong enough that the company asked customers to postpone smartbook and tablet PC shipments to wait for the Android-based Tegra 250 processor to be available, Henry said. While it was a “tough pill to leave revenue on the table, we wanted to get the right experience out there” with the Tegra 250, Henry said. Nvidia will continue supplying first-generation Tegra chips for some smartphones, but it won’t develop the technology for e-readers until they have color displays and broad Internet capability, Henry said. “When people take that device and use it for browsing and e-reading, then we have a strong play,” he said.