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With two new mobile companies under its wing, NVIDIA may be developing Sony's next-gen hand held GPU

NVIDIA just announced that Sony has awarded the company a new contract to design new graphics chips for an undisclosed project. Despite the new contract win, Sony's PlayStation 3 has yet to be released, and is actually delayed further.

Some reports are speculating that NVIDIA is signed on to develop the next GPU for a future Sony console, but NVIDIA's current activities point in the direction of a next-generation Sony mobile device. NVIDIA has recently bought various mobile graphics companies, which is a strong indication of the direction the company is taking in regards to upcoming projects.

A few days ago, Hybrid Graphics, a developer of mobile graphics processors for handhelds such as cell phones, recently announced that it had been acquired by NVIDIA. Earlier this month, NVIDIA also acquired India-based Pace Soft Silicon which develops graphics and video software technologies for cell phones and ultra-mobiles. With Hybrid Graphics and Pace Soft Silicon under its wing, NVIDIA has gained a significant foot hold in the mobile industry, gaining notable relationships with tier 1 mobile device manufacturers.

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Hmmm
By kaoken on 3/24/2006 3:57:37 PM , Rating: 2
PSP2?




RE: Hmmm
By GhandiInstinct on 3/24/2006 4:09:24 PM , Rating: 1
PSP3


RE: Hmmm
By The Cheeba on 3/24/2006 4:12:39 PM , Rating: 2
NVIDIA is redesigning the GPU for the PS3 for the inevitable 2007 delay of PS3. er... yeah


Handheld gaming sucks
By RussianSensation on 3/24/2006 4:19:11 PM , Rating: 3
Imo handheld gaming sucks. They can have 4 7900GTX 2 gig cards in there and you are still stuck with a 7 inch screen, pathetic sound and no analog sticks. Couple that with the fact that games don't cost much less and neither does PSP compared to a full-fledged console like PS2 or 360. But obviously I am the minority since gameboy advance and psp are selling like hotcakes. This is good for Nvidia and Sony. Although it would be better if Sony focused on finishing PS3 first before jumping onto other projects and neglecting what's most important now.


RE: Handheld gaming sucks
By GhandiInstinct on 3/24/2006 4:51:18 PM , Rating: 1
I agree, unless your a business man always on the run or you're just frequently outside your house then handheld gaming isn't for you, but its mainly for kids to play at school.


RE: Handheld gaming sucks
By rcc on 3/24/2006 5:30:47 PM , Rating: 4
quote:
house then handheld gaming isn't for you, but its mainly for kids to play at school


Which they shouldn't be doing anyway.

IMNSHO of course.


Here is Japan.
By drunkenmastermind on 3/24/2006 5:53:00 PM , Rating: 3
Millions of people live mobile lives and rearly go home for more than six-eight hours per day. Also public transport is heavily used here in Tokyo and with two hands free, a handheld, music device or a book can be a real blessing.


RE: Handheld gaming sucks
By TheLiberalTruth on 3/24/2006 5:46:31 PM , Rating: 3
I agree, too. I got a PSP for free (from one of McDonald's promotions), and there aren't many good games for it, they're still about the same price, even if you have a good idea for a game for the PSP, the UMD only holds 1.8GB, etc. I could go on ad nauseam, but it would quickly become insipid at best.
I think handheld gaming was great back when the gameboy was new and the games on it were about as good ad the games on the nintendo, but even then, the small, dot-matrix black-and-white screen was a drag. Oh well, I digress, I'm more excited about the PS3, for sure.


Probably something much tamer.
By Plasmoid on 3/24/2006 6:45:15 PM , Rating: 3
Well... take this in context.

The PS3 was originally announced to have a graphics card that was the equivalent of a 7800GTX... since then we have had the 7800GTX 512mb and 7900GTX (which is cheaper to make and all)

Considering the PS3 is coming out best part of a year later im sure Sony would love to have the cheaper, cooler and smaller chip in the PS3 now they have time. A quick 2 month research stint will do that, and after that they probably want to shrink it down further to 80nm or 65nm... because im sure they really want to slash down production costs.

PSP2 of course is a chance... though I think its a bit early to be thinking research is being commenced already, surely Sony wany to get a few years out of the PSP before retiring it... what with all the new gizmos they are carting out.




RE: Probably something much tamer.
By rrsurfer1 on 3/24/2006 7:06:26 PM , Rating: 2
Ehhh. I doubt it very highly. 2 months of research is not enough to integrate a new graphics chip into a new console, not to mention the game development issues that would cause. Then the supply issues of gearing up production on a brand-new chip which was rush-designed... its not happening. Probably is a portable.


By Xenoterranos on 3/25/2006 1:14:03 AM , Rating: 3
Well, Nvidia just shrunk the die smaller than (supposedly) whatis going in the ps3. It is theoretically possible that soon after launch (1 year?) sony could start putting smaller, cooler nvidia chips into it to save some money. If all you're doing is a die shrink, it's almost no trouble at all (from the manufacturing pov)


Handheld gaming is only good on DS
By Mitul89 on 3/24/2006 7:43:16 PM , Rating: 4
If you want a kick ass gaming experiance on handheld, than you have to try DS. There are 6 online games for DS but they all KICK ASS. The games on DS are so fun to play and the best thing is that they are brand new games, well most of them

PSP is good only for Music and emulators, other then that, the games on PSP arent good as DS and the online fucking sucks..




By sxr7171 on 3/24/2006 11:40:22 PM , Rating: 2
Yeah screw this PSP stuff, I'm going to play some Animal Crossing and Mario Kart.


By killerroach on 3/25/2006 3:14:18 AM , Rating: 2
Handheld gaming on the DS is only good if you don't consider the touchscreen mechanic, a rather unreliable and error-prone input system, much of a liability (or, even worse, a gimmick). I'm still firmly of the opinion that the best handheld gaming system was the GBA, largely due to the overwhelming amount of retro gaming goodness to grace the system. Granted, the PSP can run those games in emulators and the DS can play GBA games directly, but both cost a whole lot more than the little handheld that could.


Quite a few possibilities
By killerroach on 3/24/2006 5:52:38 PM , Rating: 3
Yes, a video chip for a theoretical PSP2 would be a definite possibility, as would be the possibility that GoForce chips (or variants thereof) could end up being used in Sony Ericsson cell phones (which is probably the more likely thing). There could also be the possibility of giving some primitive hardware graphics capability (and maybe even gaming abilities) to the Network Walkman. All of these things are possible... heck, they could already be contacted for work on an updated PS3 (or even a chip for the PS4).




Possibly for PS3?
By greeniguana00 on 4/9/2006 8:35:45 AM , Rating: 2
***Listen Sony, when PS3 was first announced with its GPU better than two of the top-of-the-line 6800 ultras, almost every PC gamer was sold. Now that the 7800 gtx 512 and 7900 have been released which match the RSX's power, many PC gamers would think twice before buying one. With the short graphics card power-doubling cycle, a card which supersedes the RSX is due out before the delayed release of the PS3. While the delay is a letdown for some gamers, it is really a blessing in disguise. Not only does it give developers more time to make their games, it also gives time for Sony to help Nvidia develop a better GPU for the PS3. New games for the PS3 can always be released later, but hardware limitations can haunt a console for its entire lifetime. If Sony upgrades the PS3's GPU, sales will increase from PC gamers going to the PS3 rather than an equivalently priced graphics card. If the PS3's GPU is less powerfull, PC gamers will be turned off. If developers make games based on a slower GPU, a faster GPU in the console won't do any harm, it will only hep future developers and console sales (which amount to increased game sales later on.

Upgrading the GPU would increase profits for game developers probably in the short term, and definitely in the long term.




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