Nvidia, -once a name synonymous with graphics chip, PC, and server processors- is set to deliver its own chips for Windows 8 devices.
“We hope to use our extensive background in graphics to differentiate from competitors and push our ARM-based Tegra chips to Windows 8 tablets and laptops that offer powerful graphics and long battery life, said Igor Stanek, senior product manager, notebooks/Tegra, Europe, Middle East, Africa and India.
He said the upcoming Windows 8 will work on both x86 microprocessors and ARM processors specifically for the touch interface.
Most tablets now run on ARM processors, with many Android tablets running on Nvidia’s Tegra processors. The latest Tegra 3 processor has up to four ARM CPUs.
Windows grew up on x86 chips from Intel and Advanced Micro Devices, but Microsoft’s new OS offers Nvidia an opportunity to break the status quo, Stanek said.
Nvidia has around 65 per cent market share in discrete graphics card business and AMD has around 35 per cent market share.
Stanek said Nvidia already has a long history of building graphics drivers for x86 processors and that puts them in a unique position in the ARM camp, as Gulf News stated.
Stanek added “We think the opportunity is really huge. It plays to the strength of our company,”, and added “We’re working with virtually every manufacturer excited about Windows on ARM.”
Microsoft is only working with specific ARM-based chip-makers including Nvidia, Qualcomm and Texas Instruments for Windows 8.
Just like Nvidia, Qualcomm has said it is developing a quad-core S4 chip to compete with Intel’s x86-based ultra books.
A discrete graphics card will be a significant differentiator; he said and added that Nvidia may find it easier to jump into Windows 8 on ARM than competitors.
“The challenge is to come up with a good processing core to migrate into the mobile space and looking at something that is very focused on the mobile and high portability space,” he said.
Even though Tegra 3, being the first quad core processor, is not dominating the market yet as Tegra 2 did, Nvidia is already working on a successor, code-named Wayne, he said, which is expected to be 10 times faster than the Tegra 2 chip. The Nvidia Tegra 3 debuted six months ago and the first tablet based on the quad core platform was Asus Transformer Prime.
HTC One X is the world’s first Tegra 3 powered Smartphone and debuted in the UAE a few days ago. Stanek said his firm will be launching a new Tegra chipset each year as they see enormous opportunities in the tablet and Smartphone space
