New NVIDIA Tegra, Ion Chips Coming in 1H 2010

Mobile Internet devices, tablets and netbooks based on the next-gen NVIDIA Tegra platform will be rolled out in the first half of 2010, a company executive said last week.

According to Michael Hara, senior vice president of investor relations at Nvidia, the chip maker will also launch the next-generation Ion graphics processor in the first half of next year.

Earlier reports say the new low-power Tegra chips, featuring an Arm-based CPU, GeForce graphics, and other components on the same die, will support 1080p HD video playback, and WiFi, 3G and WiMax connectivity.

NVIDIA’s Ion platform combines Intel Atom CPUs with GeForce graphics to deliver full 1080p video on netbooks and mini PCs. At the time of this writing, we have no info on enhancements that will be included in the upcoming Ion chips.

Besides NVIDIA, Qualcomm has announced last month the low-power Snapdragon mobile platform for small Internet-centric computers called smartbooks.

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