Nvidia Promises Tegra 2-Based Netbooks, Smartbooks, Smartphones in 2010

From X-bit Labs: vidia Corp.’s Tegra family of system-on-chip (SoC) devices gas not been exactly successful: shipments of actual devices were postponed and the number of design wins is hardly impressive. Nevertheless, Nvidia pins a lot of hopes on the second-generation Tegra SoC that is due to be announced early in January. According to the chip designer, Tegra 2-based devices will emerge already in 2010.

“At CES we are going to make a major announcement about Tegra family. It is highly possible that we will see some very interesting form-factors coming out at the same time. [There will be products] shown by our partners using the next-generation Tegra device. You are going to see roll-outs and deployments of tablet PCs, smartbooks, netbooks, MIDs throughout the first half [of the year]; and then you will see major roll-outs of smartphones in the second half,” said Michael Hara, senior vice president of investor relations and communications at Nvidia, at Barclays Technology Conference last week.

Few details are known about Tegra 2 at the moment, but at various events Nvidia’s high-ranking executives said that the next-gen Tegra will be at least two times more powerful than the predecessor. In particular, the SoC will feature a dual-core ARM general-purpose processor as well as more powerful graphics technology inside. Perhaps, Tegra 2 will also use faster memory and will have other improvements. Michael Hara said that Nvidia Tegra 2 will be made using 40nm low-power process technology.

Nvidia claims that with the next-generation Tegra its SoC sales will become considerably larger and once smartphones powered by Tegra are released, this will have even more significant impact in the second half of 2010. Nvidia hopes that by the end of its fiscal 2011, Tegra revenues per quarter will hit $100 million.

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