Category: Nvidia

Nvidia Tegra2 ARM Cortex-A9 dual-core performance for web browsing

Posted by – November 13, 2010

Here’s a demonstration showing that the second core in ARM Cortex-A9 processors allow for at least 50% performance improvement for such applications as the web browser in Android.

Mark Shuttleworth loves the Toshiba AC100

Posted by – November 1, 2010
Category: Laptops, Nvidia, Ubuntu

The CEO of Canonical, Mark Shuttleworth, highlighted ARM Servers by Smooth-stone and Tegra2 Powered Toshiba AC100 at his keynote speech at the Ubuntu Developer Conference. He mentions the cool work done to port Ubuntu 10.10 to it: http://ac100.gudinna.com/. Hopefully Nvidia, Canonical people and the open source community will bring about full hardware acceleration for all aspects of Ubuntu 10.10 on this ARM Cortex-A9 laptop design.

Found via: blogarm.net

netbooknews.com: Nvidia explains Tegra 2 tablets delay

Posted by – September 27, 2010
Category: Tablets, Nvidia, Android

CEO of Nvidia, Jen-Hsun Huang, recently said at their GPU technology conference that some of the reason for Tegra 2 tablets delay has been the OS and software integration (my guess: possibly something to do with optimizing existing Android source code for Nvidia’s ARM Cortex A9), that several companies have needed to collaborate to reach “Windows 95” level in terms of software integration, once the investment has been made to realize the horizhontal infrastructure behind these upcoming tablet, it will allow for the fast innovation curve that’s about to arrive when hundreds of companies can innovate faster in the tablet market. He hopes the Tegra 2 tablets will arrive to market by the end of the year, they are in the “home stretch”.

This video was released at: netbooknews.com

Hannspree 10.1″ capacitive Tegra 2 Android Tablet to be released at 399€

Posted by – September 5, 2010

Here’s yet another 10.1″ Tegra 2 based Android tablet to be released in November for 399€ in a bunch of countries. It might be the same base tablet design as the one that I shown as the Malata 10.1″ Android tablet at Computex and the Interpad tablet that I filmed a couple days ago at IFA.

Interpad launches 10.1″ capacitive Tegra2 Android tablet for 399€

Posted by – September 4, 2010

Interpad is a German brand releasing this 10.1″ capacitive ARM Cortex A9 Tegra2 based Android tablet design for 399€ all over Europe. This tablet design is manufactured by chinese manufacturer Malata as you can see from my Computex video filmed last June: 10 Inch Capacitive Android Tablet by Malata.

Toshiba AC-100 ARM Tegra2 Powered Android Laptop

Posted by – September 2, 2010

This is probably so far the coolest looking ARM Powered laptop to be released broadly on the market. The first ARM Cortex A9 based laptop. Runs an optimized Android OS with custom web browser from Opera Mobile and I am guessing, the full Chrome browser for ARM may be able to run on this eventually as well. This laptop is being released right now for around 299€ or $299 with WiFi and a bit more for the version with built-in 3G modem.

Toshiba Folio-100 Android Tablet at IFA 2010

Posted by – September 2, 2010

This is Toshiba’s new 10.1″ capacitive Tegra2 powered Android tablet.

Toshiba Places, content on all screens

Posted by – September 2, 2010

A synchronized cloud based content browsing and streaming system that works across set-top-box, laptops both ARM powered and Intel powered, and on Toshiba’s new Tegra2 based Android laptops and tablets.

Boxee on ARM Powered Box coming soon

Posted by – July 17, 2010

This is not Google TV on ARM yet, but this is a major achievement already, Boxee can run the full Boxee software experience on an ARM Powered box. Boxee is considered to be one of the best user interfaces for media streamers and Web TV. I wonder how much would need to change in D-Link’s Nvidia Tegra 2 Powered Boxee Box for them to be able to release a Google TV version of Boxee Box, and have the Boxee video navigation UI functionalities be an app on top of Google TV OS. My guess is the full Google TV experience requires HDMI input and output and an IR blaster (to integrate with existing cable/satellite boxes), thus would require a slightly upgraded version of this hardware.

For users who don’t require the feature of old TV integration with cable/satellite set-top-boxes but who only want the future experience of VOD, media streaming and web TV stuff, it would be cool to know how likely or unlikely it might be to be able to load Google TV OS for ARM once it is open sourced by Google on this Box and have Boxee’s complete set of features and user interfaces as a 3D accelerated app on top of Android. In my video interview with Boxee from CES, the Boxee representatives say that Boxee Box is designed to be open source and hackable:

There is an SD card slot on the side. We know that a lot of developers and hackers really like to side load the OS and have their own apps, so we are trying to make it as developer friendly as possible.

Newgadgets.de: Toshiba AC100 Dynabook AZ is Tegra-2 Powered

Posted by – July 12, 2010
Category: Laptops, Nvidia, Android

Wow, the Toshiba AC100 Cloud Companion smartbook is some serious looking ARM Cortex A9 laptop right there, being launched soon! It’s based on Nvidia Tegra 2 1ghz ARM Cortex A9 system on chip, with a nice HDMI output on the side of the device (full 1080p output!), it runs a customized version of Android optimized for the Laptop form factor. It comes with 512MB DDR2 (333 MHz) RAM, 16GB Flash (up to 32GB version available), 2 USB host ports, 10.1″ 1024×600 LED backlit LCD, SDHC card reader, 1.3 megapixel webcam, Bluetooth, WiFi-N and a weight of 870 grams. Toshiba may launch this in Europe in August as a kind of high end thin premium laptop priced 349€ for WiFi-only version and 449€ for the version with built-in 3G HSDPA.

Source: NewGadgets.de, Youtube channel

Malata SMB-A1011, 10 Inch Capacitive Android Tablet

Posted by – June 9, 2010

This tablet has a nice design, it’s compact and light for a 10″ capacitive Android tablet. It comes with a HDMI output for 1080p video output, USB host ports, is based on the ARM Cortex A9 based Nvidia Tegra 2 processor.

Here are the specs:

Processor: Nvidia Tegra 2 dual-core ARM Cortex A9 at 1ghz
Screen: 10.1″ 16:9 1024×600 Capacitive touch-screen
Storage: 512MB to 1GB SLC, 2GB to 32GB iNand (depending on the chosen configuration)
RAM: 512MB to 1GB DDR2 (depending on the chosen configuration)
Inputs/outputs: Mini USB, Mini HDMI output, Headphones, MicroSD
Connectivity: WiFi b/g, Bluetooth (optional)
Other: G-sensor, built-in stereo speakers
Battery: 3500mAh lithium polymer
OS: Android 2.1
Size: 253 x 164 x 12.5mm
Weight: 660gr

Asus Eee Pad runs Windows Embedded Compact 7

Posted by – May 31, 2010

Here is one very cool looking, ultra thin and ultra light tablet by Asus powered by Windows CE7 and running on an NVidia Tegra processor. It’s only 0,48 inches (1,21cm) thick, sports a touchscreen and a built in camera, supports Adobe Flash and is said to have 10hrs of battery life. Asus announced its release for end of 2010/beginning of 2011 but did not reveal the price. According to rumours it will start at $399.

Were there Android Tablets at GoogleI/O?

Posted by – May 21, 2010
Category: Tablets, Nvidia, Android

I was expecting Google to launch Android Tablet Edition at the recent Google I/O, but watching through the two keynotes videos (1, 2), I can only see lots interesting things about WebM open-source free licence VP8 video codec launch, awesome new Android 2.2 features and Google TV launch, but no mention of them bringing their Android Martketplace to tablets.

NetbookNews.com did find a Nvidia Tegra 2 based new Android tablet showcased, but no talk or confirmation on if it will come with the Google Marketplace officially pre-installed:

Nvidia to power Android 3 (Gingerbread?)

Posted by – May 15, 2010
Category: Nvidia, Android

In a conference call reported by theinquirer.net, Jen-Hsun Huang, CEO of Nvidia talks about following things:

Jen-Hsun knows where the competition will come from, but added that Tegra plus Android 3 will prove to be a winning formula. “Prior to Tegra, there are only two application processor companies out in the mobile space, right? Basically, it’s Qualcomm and TI, and they both make wonderful application processors,” he said.

“Our differentiation and our contribution to the space is where multimedia, high resolution snappy graphics [are] really necessary. And the first-generation smartphones had pretty low resolution displays. And so snappy graphics and high-performance multimedia and high resolution just wasn’t as much of an issue. But [now] resolution’s a huge issue. And so that’s our contribution and that’s our differentiation and that’s what people are seeking out in the market.”

That may mean Android 3 is being optimized for ARM Cortex A9 grade processors. Taking advantage of dual-core and quad-core high performance processing and especially of the much increased graphics and video processing features of these next generation ARM processors. Thus the optimizations of the OS code may look like this:

Android 1 = ARM9 and ARM11
Android 2 = ARM Cortex A8
Android 3 = ARM Cortex A9

Animated backgrounds, fancier 3D UIs are nice and all, but I wonder if those might be bloat. I’d rather the video processing and graphics performance stick to when users launch camcorder, video playback, animations or 3D games applications. Having the most advanced camcorder and console-quality gaming in our next pocketable devices, absolutely, why not. If the next generation web browsers can output 100% smooth Chrome browsers, possibly assisted by powerful graphics hardware acceleration, using a 720p HDMI output to a HDTV, for a full screen instant web browsing experience, full javascripts and flash support, then even better.

Dell is making a 7-inch WVGA Tegra 2 Android tablet

Posted by – April 21, 2010
Category: Tablets, Nvidia, Android

Today’s Dell Android product leaks continue with this 7-inch Android tablet design powered by the ARM Cortex A9 based Nvidia Tegra2 processor! It’ll also have an optional DVB-T and ATSC TV tuner module. 1.3 megapixel camera and an SDHC card slot.

Source: engadget.com

JKKmobile.com: Mio Moov at CeBIT 2010

Posted by – March 10, 2010
Category: Tablets, Nvidia, CeBIT, Windows

New Mio Moov with capacitive multi-touch 3G ARM11 Tegra1 powered GPS navigation device, with a keyboard connected to the leather case, with an interface built on top of Windows CE.

Source: http://jkkmobile.blogspot.com/2010/03/mio-moov-at-cebit-2010.html

MSI Android Tablet at Mobile World Congress 2010

Posted by – February 17, 2010

Flash support and Unreal Tournament on Nvidia Tegra 2

Posted by – February 15, 2010

Nvidia is demonstrating working Youtube 720p Flash 10.1 playback and smooth Unreal Tournament gameplay on the Tegra 2 development kit.

Tim Sweeney talks about Unreal Engine on ARM Powered devices

Posted by – January 25, 2010

Tim Sweeney is the founder of Epic Games, he is in charge of the Unreal Tournament, Gears of War and plenty more very famous game franchises. But not only does his company make games, Epic makes the most famous and most popular 3D game engines on which hundreds of other games all over the industry are based on.

Now the Unreal engine is being launched for the Nvidia Tegra2 processor and has been showcased to run on other OpenGL ES based ARM Powered devices like the ipod touch.

In this interview, I ask when we will see Android devices with support for the Unreal Engine, and how many games does he think will work on all these ARM Powered devices that have the advanced 3D acceleration built-in.

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

A message to Boxee about the Boxee payments system

Posted by – January 20, 2010

I posted this comment to Avner Ronen’s announcement about the upcoming Boxee payments system:

It was nice to film Boxee Box at CES.

And congratulations to them with all those people thinking they were the best of the show.

I wish the Boxee project good luck in revolutionizing the TV world. It’s a big deal though, I think that industry is not only a multi-trillion dollar industry worldwide, they also basically control the minds of people. TV stations are decisive in elections, they make or break politicians and one cannot become famous without TV.

While I am amazed to see all Boxee’s cool TV remote interfaces work so smoothly on an ARM Powered Tegra2 device, I’d like to see confirmation that Boxee Box definitely support everything and all codecs on that platform. If they really will support all the same content sources such as Youtube HD, Hulu, all the podcasts, BitTorrent RSS and more.

Since Boxee is building an open system, perhaps the best way to implement pay-per-view would be to implement an open platform that not only supports Boxee payments but could support any other payment system where Boxee might not even see 1% of the transaction revenues. It’d probably be weird though for Boxee to be that open even on the payment opportunity side of things.

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]