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[NinjaFromTheFuture]

According to brightsideofthenews.com

When Jen-Hsun Huang, co-founder and CEO of nVidia announced that he expects to see Tegra capturing 50% of nVidia's revenue within the next couple of years, a lot of people thought that this is a smoke screen to sway the attention from its battles against AMD and Intel.

Incredibly how it may sound, from what we are hearing nVidia is dead on achieving its course. With a very aggressive approach, the company managed to sway not just Microsoft with the Zune HD multimedia player [based on Tegra APX 2600], but also a long-time IBM and ATI customer - Nintendo.

Launched in 2004, the Nintendo DS and its two latter redesigns [DS Lite and DSi] sold in massive 111.49 million units. With almost 40 million handheld consoles sold in United States alone, Nintendo DS owns 68.3% of worldwide market share.

As the time passed by, Nintendo started to work on the successor of its handheld console with a debut planned for late 2010 [Tokyo Game Show?]. According to our confidential sources, Nintendo is going to use Tegra System-on-Chip processor for the successor of DS/DSi handheld console. Unlike the current design, nVidia offered a single-chip proposal to Nintendo, a company famous for keeping the hardware platform absolutely simple.

Given the fact that Nintendo DS hardware is based upon 16-bit and 32-bit ARM cores, it looks like Next-Gen DS could be backwards compatible with the DS application library. According to our sources, all of the apps that came for old DS could run on a single ARM11 core, yet alone the next-gen CorTex-A9-based Tegra, leaving graphics subsystem to do "something smarter".

Currently, we have no information what exact chip is being used [just that nVidia won the contract], but with the debut set for February 2010, the second generation of Tegra chips could make an excellent base [to be launched at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona].
The question of power consumption and performance is quite aninteresting one. With Gen2 Tegra offering quite a graphics punch;GeForce 9 based hardware [CUDA-enabled design] should offer immenseexperience on small screens - we see no reason why you could not have4x Anti-Aliasing and 8x Anisotropic filtering on a dual-screen system.If Nintendo picked the current gen hardware, i.e. Tegra 600 or APX 2600- it will be getting 65nm chips. If they go with 2nd gen parts, theywill get 40nm chips offering higher performance and lower powerconsumption. The moment we learn about the exact hardware going intoNintendo's next-gen console, we'll inform you.

Thus, it is not hard for us to imagine that Tegra could outship GeForce boards just like Intel's Atom CPU shipped in more units than expensive Nehalem processors. Naturally, the profit ratio is significantly different, but something in the range of $4-5 per chip would mean nVidia could earn half a billion USD from a single deal [over the course of life for the Nintendo's next-gen part].

Now, the billion dollar question is: if Nintendo chose nVidia for the handheld console, does that mean nVidia may have an entrance into the lucrative Wii business? Bear in mind that Wii console was sold in 53.97 million units, taking almost half of current console market [48.4%, according to ********.com]. Also, we wonder what is going to be in next-generation PlayStation Portable...

 

["God's Beard!"]

2 DSs taped together.

 

[rollingstart]

Cool if true. Recently on a podcast I heard the graphics of Project Gotham Racing on the Zune HD to be "just below Xbox 1" graphics.

 

[Durante]

2 DSs taped together.

If true, I expect it to be closer to 200 DS.

 

[Nirolak]

2 DSs taped together.

That'd be the DSi.

If true, I expect it to be closer to 200 DS.

This oddly may not be an exaggeration.

 

[rezuth]

Nintendo DS has aged pretty badly.

 

[Gravijah]

Nintendo DS has aged pretty badly.

no

 

[Combichristoffersen]

2 DSs taped together.

Quad Screen DS confirmed?

 

[Stink]

Nintendo DS has aged pretty badly.

:lol

it was just born mature.

 

[ExtraKr1spy]

Hopefully the partnership turns out better for them than it did for MS and Sony.

 

[Father_Brain]

Well, I guess DSi is the next GBC after all.

Spoiler

assuming it eventually gets more than two exclusive retail games, and from publishers people have actually heard of

 

[CO_Andy]

I was fearing for nVidia but this is good news.

At this point the company needs to do whatever it can to stay relevant, even if that means working on the cheap.

 

[Chrono]

What does this mean in terms of power, how much more powerful than DS and PSP would that handheld approximately be?

 

[ShinNL]

I really hope not because I've heard many stories about nVidia cards frying in notebooks. Also my own

(now switched to ATI permanently)

 

[cw_sasuke]

Is that chip more potent than the PSP or iPhone GPU ?

it looks like Next-Gen DS could be backwards compatible with the DS application library.

Best handheld ever if true ;-)

 

[PSGames]

This would be a very smart move for both companies.

 

[iamaustrian]

111.49 million units sold

holy shit, I didn't know that

 

[Jocchan]

That'd be the DSi.

Exactly.

 

[Bluemercury]

Is that chip more potent than the PSP or iPhone GPU ?

Its based on the Ge Force 9 so i would say much better....?

 

[rezuth]

Is that chip more potent than the PSP or iPhone GPU ?

I would expect a machine that matches the iPhone 3GS.

 

[TheChewyWaffles]

Its based on the Ge Force 9 so i would say much better....?

The hell? Wow.

 

[Bluemercury]

I would expect a machine that matches the iPhone 3GS.

Does the iphone 3gs do 4 x Anti-Aliasing and 8x Anisotropic filtering??it seems i havent noticed that, although i havent seen a graphic intense game on that system.

 

[Golden Darkness]

Best handheld ever if true ;-)

That would depend if it'll keep the ARM9 CPU core.

And of course, if it has decent battery life.

 

[Shig]

Good, can't come soon enough. Sub-N64-level 3D should have gone the way of the dodo in 2000.

 

[Deku]

Is that chip more potent than the PSP or iPhone GPU ?



Best handheld ever if true ;-)

Would be pretty dumb of them to note make DS-2 backwards compatible considering their biggest hardware platforms in company history had that feature.

But power is a bit irrelevant especially going up again the iPhone. Considering Apple cranks one out every 6-8 months, I'm sure by the time the DS-2 rolls out, Apple would have a similar if not more capable iphone on the market for thrice the cost.

What would be of most importance is the the chip doesn't overheat, and is a good base for the next 6 years of portable gaming. I certainly have faith Nintendo will design a good platform that doesn't break every 2 months.

Though all this is based on a speculative piece. I wouldn't expect the DS2 for another 2 years.

 

[godhandiscen]

This is what a Tegra chip can do: http://www.gametrailers.com/user-movie/nvidia-tegra-quake-3-demo/225176


That is over a generation ahead of the PSP/DS. Hopefully the chip Nintendo gets is as powerful.

 

[Somnid]

These rumors actually circulated a while back. Perhaps there might be some weight to it afterall?

 

[Tarin02543]

if true nvidia doesn't have to worry about Ati anymore.

 

[TouchMyBox]

I want to believe, but this sounds too good to be true. :\

 

[CO_Andy]

In some odd years we may finally get to play FF6 in decent-looking 3D :O

 

[godhandiscen]

Its based on the Ge Force 9 so i would say much better....?

The common Tegra is based on the GeForce 6. http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/39215/135/

 

[Road]

holy shit, I didn't know that

111.49 million is right out of chartzzzz....

Nintendo has shipped 107.75 million as of Jun. 30rd of this year.

 

[CTLance]

Hmmm hmmm. Although I'd have preferred a PowerVR core because I have a boner for tilebased rendering, this is good news. At least this design won't have a hardcoded 300k-triangle limit or other oddities. I hope.

 

[rezuth]

Does the iphone 3gs do 4 x Anti-Aliasing and 8x Anisotropic filtering??it seems i havent noticed that, although i havent seen a graphic intense game on that system.

The chip supports it and the iPhone OS uses it by default but I'm uncertain if developers can use it. However with OpenGL ES, I don't see why they should not be able to do it on the iPhone 3GS.

 

[iamaustrian]

111.49 million is right out of chartzzzz....

Nintendo has shipped 107.75 million as of Jun. 30rd of this year.

so that would make it around 111 millions now (oct), no?

 

[Gravijah]

In some odd years we may finally get to play FF6 in decent-looking 3D :O

Or maybe the TRUE Final Fantasy 7 before $ony stole all of the rights for FF.

 

[Raistlin]

Nintendo DS has aged pretty badly.

That's hardly surprising, given it wasn't even state-of-the-art at launch.

That is over a generation ahead of the PSP/DS. Hopefully the chip Nintendo gets is as powerful.

Is this somehow implying the PSP and DS are similar generations? :lol

 

[inner-G]

come on nintendo, put video out on it!!

 

[iamaustrian]

come on nintendo, put video out on it!!

that wouldn't make sense if it's 2 screens again.
you have seen that enormous thingy they need to display the 2 screens of the DS on one TV screen?

 

[Raistlin]

Or maybe the TRUE Final Fantasy 7 before $ony stole all of the rights for FF.

The amount of fail in this post is ... amazing.

 

[Somnid]

come on nintendo, put video out on it!!

You mean 2 video outs?

 

[FoxSpirit]

This is what a Tegra chip can do: http://www.gametrailers.com/user-movie/nvidia-tegra-quake-3-demo/225176


That is over a generation ahead of the PSP/DS. Hopefully the chip Nintendo gets is as powerful.

I dunno, I'd say PSP chucks out better graphics than Q3 and also has 30FPS. Only no AA/AF but much nicer textures.

 

[AzureNightmare]

That's hardly surprising, given it wasn't even state-of-the-art at launch.





Is this somehow implying the PSP and DS are similar generations? :lol

considering how they are direct competitors, that would put them in the same generation, unless you mean to imply that my connotation of a generation of hardware is wrong?

 

[Biff]

This actually explains all of Nvidia's strange activity the past couple weeks. Talking specifically about the whole giving-this-quarter-to-ATI-as-an-early-Christmas-gift thing.

"Here ATI, enjoy your 58xx sales, you deserve them! Oh, btw, you're done by 2011. lol"

 

[Dragona Akehi]

Nintendo... using Tegra for the next DS?

AHUAHUAHUAHUAHUAHUAHUAHUAHUAHUAHUAHUAHUAHUAHUAHAU

 

[inner-G]

You mean 2 video outs?

they could show both screens at once, with black space around it.It would be small, but playable. It's only a 2" screen to start with.

It would suck for touch games, but be awesome for RPGs.

 

[itsgreen]

No.

 

[cw_sasuke]

"Here ATI, enjoy your 58xx sales, you deserve them! Oh, btw, you're done by 2011. lol"

:lol

 

[Instro]

This would be pretty huge for Nvidia, people already seem to be jumping on the stock...assuming it turns out true. :lol

 

[Gospel]

I want to believe, but this sounds too good to be true. :\

I know what you mean.

All this does is make me wonder just what direction Nintendo plans to take with the Wii's successor, if there is one.