As the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) kicked off on Thursday in Las Vegas, NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang outlined the growing influence of the tablet market.
The NVIDIA Tegra 2 chip will compete head-to-head with CPU maker Intel, as both companies prepare to woo consumers. The Tegra 2 system-on-a-chip (SOC) technology was first widely covered early last summer, with NVIDIA officials noting it will be "twice as powerful" as similar products available.
The GPU maker is anticipating a close battle with Intel -- a company best known for its CPUs, but is well known for its integrated graphics platform -- though it still could be a couple of years before the battle truly kicks off.
"We're certainly pursuing some designs and have won some designs with Atom," said Tom Kilroy, Intel VP of Sales and Marketing, in a statement to PC World. "[Arm has] earned the position they have got. We're now entering that category and we're realistic about that.
Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard recently introduced a Windows 7-powered tablet, but failed to mention hardware providers -- Microsoft CTO Phil McKinney reportedly said the CPU is an Intel Atom Z-series product. The biggest problem facing Intel is that it needs to find ways to increase battery life, as the NVIDIA platform reportedly is more energy efficient.
It's obviously too early to tell who will win the battle, but there is plenty of money to be made by both companies. Oddly silent is AMD, known for its server and personal PC CPU products, with the company instead focusing on the netbook market.
If tablets turn out to be the product of the year, expect numerous other companies to flock to the potential money maker before year's end. As casual consumers begin to familiarize themselves with tablets in this year and beyond, demand could very well go through the roof.
Apple is expected to announce a new tablet by the end of the month, with Dell and other PC manufacturers expected to follow suit.
Are you interested in tablets, or are netbooks enough?
