Nvidia CEO: 2010 is the year of the tablet

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Posted on 7 Jan 2010 at 23:36

CES 2010: Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang said this morning that 2010 would be the year of the tablet PC as he lifted the curtains on the next-generation Tegra 2 system on a chip.

The next generation Tegra chip features eight independent processors, including a dual-core Cortex A9 CPU (the first of its kind) and a spruced up Nvidia graphics processor.

What makes Tegra 2 impressive though is that it sips just 500mW of power while playing 1080p HD videos. Tegra's excellent power efficiency enables it to play back up to 140 hours of music (that's around 200 CDs) or 16 hours of 1080p HD video on a single charge with a standard battery.

Not only that but, thanks to the Nvidia graphics processor, gaming is also possible. Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney said that "gaming on Tegra is exciting" as he showed a real-time demo of Unreal Engine 3.0 running on Tegra 2 with all of the lighting effects enabled. Sweeney said that Tegra 2's graphics chip is as powerful as the current consoles, which is incredible considering the computer on a chip is about the size of my rather average-sized thumbnail.

Huang showed off a few new tablet PCs from a range of manufacturers, including Asus, Compal, Foxconn, ICD, MSI and Quanta. Most appeared to be running a version of Google's Android mobile operating system, but there's scope for them to run alternatives - it's up to the manufacturers, effectively.

One of the tablets demoed by Huang included a back and front-lit display - simply turning off the backlight allowed it to double as an eBook reader and you won't sacrifice valuable battery life. It meant the display was consuming just 0.2mW in its front-lit mode.

He said that more than 50 designs are already "in flight" and, given Nvidia's relationship with Apple and the rumours surrounding its plans to get into the tablet PC market, we suspect one might be the so-called iSlate. We'll find out if this proves to be the case later this month if rumours are to be believed, as they suggest that Apple will make a major announcement on either 26th or 27th January.