NVIDIA's Tegra 2 Take Two: More Architectural Details and Design Wins
by Anand Lal Shimpi on January 5, 2011 2:51 PM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Motorola Droid
- Tegra 2
- LG
- Optimus 2X
- ATRIX 4G
- Mobile
- NVIDIA
Tegra Optimized Smartphone Games: Tegra Zone
For NVIDIA to build a name for itself in the smartphone and tablet space, its SoCs have to offer something different. Being the first to dual core is a nice thing to brag about but Qualcomm and TI will be shipping dual core SoCs in 2011 as well. NVIDIA views its close relationship with console and PC game developers as one of its major strengths in the market. NVIDIA hopes to leverage its developer relations as a Tegra platform advantage.
The how is really quite simple. NVIDIA is working with many of its existing partners as well as some new ones in the smartphone space to release Tegra optimized titles for Android every quarter. The goal is to have at least one killer title every quarter. By the end of 2011 NVIDIA expects to have over 100 Tegra optimized titles available.
The titles will be available through a custom marketplace on Android called Tegra Zone. All Tegra 2 enabled phones will have the Tegra Zone app that you can use to find, purchase and download Tegra optimized games.
The purchase process works over the Android Market system, you just purchase from within the Tegra Zone app instead of using Market.
NVIDIA provided a few examples of what Tegra 2 optimized games could look like. Below is a quick comparison between Backbreaker running on iOS and Tegra 2:
Turn up detail and quality settings, include some more visuals and you’ve got the gist of the difference between a Tegra 2 game and a regular title.
The difference is nice but I personally don’t feel like it’s enough by itself to move users to Tegra 2 based phones. It’s simply a nice adder for Tegra 2 owners. Ultimately it’s performance, battery life and the quality of the devices that will sell NVIDIA based handsets.
Working with developers this early on gives you a hint at NVIDIA’s future smartphone strategy. NVIDIA sees gaming as a huge part of what will drive smartphone innovation in the future, so if you look back at NVIDIA’s strategy from the early days of 3D gaming on the PC you can probably get a good idea of what to expect from Tegra in the future.
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DigitalFreak - Wednesday, January 5, 2011 - link
Anand or Brian - any idea what carriers the 2x will be available on in the US?therealnickdanger - Wednesday, January 5, 2011 - link
While I don't know anything officially (I don't think anyone does yet), LG brought its current Optimus line to all carriers. I would imagine that they will do the same with the 2X - assuming one carrier seeking exclusivity doesn't dump a pile of cash on LG's doorstep.If the LG Optimus (S, T, One) are any indication of the build quality of the 2X, then I will probably be in line to buy one as soon as it is made available on Sprint. I love my Optimus S.
Cali3350 - Thursday, January 6, 2011 - link
Probably the iPhone 4. When it comes to being smooth iOS is untouched at this point in time (probably because everything is GPU accelerated).Cali3350 - Thursday, January 6, 2011 - link
Clearly posted in response to the wrong item, sorry.metafor - Wednesday, January 5, 2011 - link
I think those are "throughput" numbers, not latency numbers. The technical reference manual:http://infocenter.arm.com/help/index.jsp?topic=/co...
states "cycles" definition is merely the minimum number of cycles it takes to issue, not actually execute the instruction.
VADD, for instance, takes 4 cycles for VFP (scalar) and 3 cycles for NEON/ASE (6 to writeback).
Cali3350 - Wednesday, January 5, 2011 - link
Have to say Im pretty wildly disappointed with how you guys seem to be mentioning it will be several months before this thing launches.I am desperately waiting for a new phone right now, but want the new tech. The HTC Mecha looks like it will be a killer phone but will still be running the same old Snapdragon HTC has used since the Incredible. I was really hoping either the Optimus or the Motorola Tegra 2 phone would be out by end of January/February, but that seems like its DEF not happening after reading this. That is all sorts of disappointment.
aebiv - Wednesday, January 5, 2011 - link
You mean the HD2 and the Nexus One... Incredible and EVO were late to the Snapdragon game.sirsoffrito - Thursday, January 6, 2011 - link
I have a Droid Incredible. I beg to differ.solipsism - Wednesday, January 5, 2011 - link
Is the die size different from the Cortex-A8? I’m wondering how this could affect placement in other smartphones.solipsism - Wednesday, January 5, 2011 - link
Er, I mean in the dual-core variety.