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Is the Zune HD NVIDIA’s Tegra coup?

Is the Zune HD NVIDIA’s Tegra coup?

nvidia_tegra_dime.jpg
We’re baffled that PC Perspective didn’t see the value in their early June confirmation that the Zune HD would be powered by NVIDIA’s Tegra SoC, but that appears to be the case. The tech blog has gone global with the announcement that Microsoft’s upcoming Zune HD product would represent NVIDIA’s first major design win for the Tegra.

NVIDIA Chief Executive Jen-Hsun Huang, in between blubbering about Intel, commented that his firm expects Tegra to comprise more than half the firm’s business inside of a few years. This statement stands in sharp contrast to the raft of hot, leaky, expensive cores that currently pin the GPU firm to the market’s map.

Tegra is the product of two CULV ARM chips. The first, an ARM 11, runs the OS and the software, while the second highly-touted GeForce-branded chip can juggle multimedia tasks like 720p decoding and even gaming. In all, NVIDIA packed eight dedicated hardware processors into the platform to accomplish Tegra’s goals.

Tegra has currently been tapped for some 48 products, while the Zune HD is expected to receive its retail launch by the end of the year.

Comments

  1. Cliff_Forster
    Cliff_Forster Its funny how time heals all wounds. Didn't Microsoft and Nvidia have a bit of a falling out over the deal on the original Xbox?

    I love my Zune, and the Zune HD is taking shape. I'm looking forward to seeing it in action.
  2. chrisWhite
    chrisWhite I'm totally with you Cliff, the Zune is the best music player on the market IMHO and I can't wait or the HD. Now that they have Audible support (as of a while ago) I would like the request Pandora for the Zune.
  3. ardichoke
    ardichoke I hate to break up the love-fest for the Zune... but I'd have to say it's far from the "best music player on the market". I find it to be lacking in file format support, not very attractive and the battery life is lacking as well. I'll take most of Cowon's products over the Zune (or iPod for that matter) any day. Also, I think, and I could be totally wrong on this, that the days of the mp3 player are numbered. Now that cell phones are getting more and more capable, I think mp3 player sales are going to dwindle as people start using their cell phone to stream media instead. I'm getting a G1 (or an HTC Magic, if it's out by then) next month and I'm now wondering what I'll do with my Cowon D2 since I'll have a cell phone that's equally capable when it comes to media... plus can stream media from anywhere I get cell signal.
  4. Thrax
    Thrax Cowons are hard to find in the US, and not many people have ever heard of them, but I agree Cowon DAPs are hard to beat.
  5. ardichoke
    ardichoke
    Thrax wrote:
    Cowons are hard to find in the US, and not many people have ever heard of them, but I agree Cowon DAPs are hard to beat.

    I agree Cowon players are hard to find in retail stores. I've never had a problem finding them from e-tailers though. NewEgg usually has a good selection of their latest offerings. Also, true, most people haven't heard of them... I'm sure that's because they don't really advertise though. Of course, that means less of my dollars going to a marketing budget and more going into development of their products. Gotta love a company that gets what recognition they have over having good products as opposed to being really good at marketing junk.
  6. chrisWhite
    chrisWhite Hmm, you're right, I have never heard of them and that's rare for me on a gadget. I'll check them out.

    I disagree though, the Zune now supports every file format I come across and the last time I tried anything but standard formats was the .ogg way back in like '99. I personally think they're nice looking and I love the interface and how they control.

    I do agree though that MP3 players days are numbered. I think that's why we're seeing so much focus on Zune HD and iPod Touch players. In the long run I think we'll see this market compltely commerge with phones. All except the super tiny devices like the Shuffle or that cool Cube one on the market a year or two ago.

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