nTersect |
- NVIDIA Technology Revs Up Automotive Industry at CES
- GeForce at CES: Behold the KEGputer
- NVIDIA and Audi Talk Tegra 2, Connected Cars, and the 2011 A8L
- Motorola Rolls Out Three Tegra Powered Devices
- A Closer Look at the Tesla Model S
- T-Mobile Launches NVIDIA Powered LG G-Slate and Dell Streak 7
- LG launches Optimus 2X Dual-Core Superphone Powered by Tegra 2
| NVIDIA Technology Revs Up Automotive Industry at CES Posted: 07 Jan 2011 10:08 AM PST CES 2011 marks NVIDIA’s coming out party, if you will, in the automotive space. NVIDIA and Audi have enjoyed a partnership for some time now, and NVIDIA-powered technology can be seen in current Audis including the Google Earth navigation system found in the 2011 A8 sedan. In fact, Audi likes working with NVIDIA so much that last year they asked NVIDIA to work with them on their second-generation navigation technologies. So clearly this young relationship between Visual Computing and “Truth in Engineering” is already bearing fruit. But there’s more, much more, as they say: NVIDIA also announced two new auto industry partnerships destined to raise a few eyebrows in Silicon Valley and Munich, Germany alike.
First, electric carmaker Tesla Motors chose NVIDIA to power the navigation, infotainment and instrument cluster systems in their much-anticipated Model S sedan. The Model S, slated for a 2012 launch, is an all-electric, seven-passenger, four door sedan that will be the company’s second production car, taking its place next to the ultra-fast Roadster and Roadster Sport in the lineup I’ll be honest with you – long before I signed on to cover CES for NVIDIA or knew anything about their plans with Tesla, I’d been lusting after the Model S. Call me a family man, call me too tame for the Roadster, but I love the S’s combination of sleek styling, four door/fastback practicality, and zero-emissions performance. Tesla’s promised 0-60 mph in 5.6 seconds, a top speed of 120 mph, and sports car handling from the Model S, which spoke just a little to my inner car nerd, too. As Phil Atkin, director of strategic marketing in NVIDIA’s Automotive group told me, “Efficiency is a religion at Tesla and NVIDIA was the only company who could meet their vision of a very powerful system backed by incredible efficiency. They asked for the impossible and we delivered.” NVIDIA also announced a new partnership with BMW – yes, that BMW – to provide state-of-the-art graphics technologies across their entire product line. That means that future generations of everything from M5s to MINI Coopers around the globe will be rocking Tegra-based visuals. Several of my tech blogging buddies are car nerds, too. And they all drive Bimmers. In fact, I’d go so far to say that the 335i and M3 are the weapons of choice for mobile industry reporters who put their money where their mouths are when it comes to auto enthusiasm. So it makes perfect sense that BMW would be teaming up with NVIDIA for their rockin next gen nav. Granted, these are just announcements. So clearly I’ll have to find a way to get behind-the-wheel time in some Audis, BMWs and a Tesla Model S cars to be sure I fully understand how the technology works. You know, research. Patience, Noah … patience. |
| GeForce at CES: Behold the KEGputer Posted: 06 Jan 2011 08:33 PM PST If you’ve been on the interwebs today looking at the news coming out of CES, you may have heard about a little something in the NVIDIA booth, that’s quickly becoming one of the show’s hot tickets: the KEGputer. Yes, just let that wash over you for a second. You might be thinking, “Well, Kris, what is a KEGputer?” I’m glad you asked! We knew that we wanted to bring something special to the show beyond our already amazing news and products, so we teamed up with Ben Lzicar and Richard Surroz to build a hot new PC case mod. And, being the creative geeks that we are we realized that this mod needed to not only be good looking, it had to be utilitarian. Enter KEGputer.
This mod is a blissful marriage of a 15.5 gallon keg and a liquid cooled GeForce GTX gaming PC. Did I mention that it has a fully functional beer dispensing system? Thanks to Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. we were able to develop a solution to install a 2.5 gallon mini keg with an integrated refrigeration system and in-line Co2 pump into the KEGputer. With it, you can pour ice-cold beer without the need of pesky beer pumps or giant tubs of ice. (See pics of the KEGputer on our Flickr stream, here)
Last but certainly not least, we worked with our partners at EVGA, ASUS, Danger Den, Crucial and Antec to ensure that the hardware on KEGputer would make it a certifiable monster of gaming power. Feast your eyes on these specs:
The only question that remains is….what are we gonna do next year? |
| NVIDIA and Audi Talk Tegra 2, Connected Cars, and the 2011 A8L Posted: 06 Jan 2011 06:26 PM PST I knew this would be a good trip when I was picked up from Mccarran Airport in an Audi A8 wrapped in co-branded Audi/NVIDIA graphics. Since there were three of us getting rides from the airport to our hotel, I wound up in the front passenger’s seat. Next thing I knew, I was adjusting the in-seat massage options by way of the center-stack touchscreen and side-of-seat controls. Gotta love technology, especially when I can fiddle with it while someone else drives. NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang drove a 2011 Audi A8L onto the stage this morning to join Audi executives in their CES keynote address (The Audi folks themselves had already made their grand entrance in an eTron Spyder concept car). Huan and Audi Chariman Rupert Stadler talked about the future of in-car multimedia systems – MMI, in the German carmaker’s parlance – powered by NVIDIA’s Tegra 2 chips. While NVIDIA technology is already revving up infotainment systems in existing Audi vehicles, the tech shown off during the keynote was concept stage, including a dashboard with 3D imagery showing vital car information. Huang also talked about the current A8L’s technological prowess, including Google connectivity and mobile hotspot capabilities. Check out mobile blogger and car geek extraordinaire Will Park’s coverage of the keynote on IntoMobile for details and photos of the eTron, A8L, and more. The NVIDIA/Audi action at CES wasn’t limited to the lucky few onstage at keynotes and, ahem, rollin’ large down the Vegas Strip in the official show vehicles. NVIDIA’s show floor booth features an 2011 Audi A8L, the company’s flagship luxury sedan. Beyond the massaging front passenger seat and heated rear seats (I sat in the back this morning going from the hotel to convention center), the A8L is tricked out to the nines with state-of-the-art automotive tech designed to make driving better for the driver, and riding more enjoyable for the passengers. As obvious as that sounds, it’s important to remember: car technology should enhance the driver’s ability to pilot the vehicle and make the ride more entertaining for passengers, and not the other way around, right? But back to the specs. I give you the 2011 Audi A8L:
And a list of standard and optional features way too long to list here. Including, is it true? – “Seat massage for rear seats.” Wait, did I miss the rear seat massage when I rode to the show this morning, or was that car a standard A8 and not an A8L? I think I’m going to have to investigate this a little more … now where’s the number for the car service? |
| Motorola Rolls Out Three Tegra Powered Devices Posted: 06 Jan 2011 05:47 PM PST Seriously, folks, it’s Tegra Tegra everywhere in the mobile and tablet space so far at CES. Motorola rolled out three Tegra 2 powered devices at their press day event, including a phone, a phone that docks into a laptop shell, and the first Android 3.0 tablet computer to hit Verizon Wireless.
First up is the tablet, the Motorola Xoom. Xoom will run Android 3.0 “Honeycomb” on a 10.1″ display with 1200 x 800 resolution and support for 1080p HD video with HDMI out. Xoom is also built for Flash content and 3D gaming, and Google’s been hard at work on tablet-optimized versions of some of their top shelf apps. I got to see a live demo of Xoom running Android 3.0, and the look and feel is definitely made for tablets, and not just a “stretched out” port of the 1.x and 2.x versions of Android seen on smartphones. Google Maps 5.0 with its 3D interface was honestly just insane to see. Xoom ships this quarter as a 3G/WiFi product with an upgrade path to Verizon’s 4G LTE service in Q2 of this year. It’s got front and rear facing cameras with video capture, a gyroscope, accelerometer e-compass and even a barometer (?), and all kinds of other goodies lurking under its big, bright, widescreen display. This thing’s a beast on first glance, and I honestly can’t wait to get some serious hands-on time to check it out in depth. Next is the phone that turns into a laptop, the Atrix 4G for AT&T. Atrix is an Android smartphone with a 4″ qHD (960 x 540) display powered by a dual-core Tegra 2 chip. 1080p video, 1GB of RAM and 16GB onboard storage, 4G and WiFi? Atrix has it all, and would rightly take its place near the top of the superphone heap based solely on what it can do in your hand. But what makes Atrix really unique are its docking options. First there’s the HD Multimedia dock for HDMI, USB and audio-out connectivity. Dock Atrix this way and you’ve got a desktop computer and home theater solution you can use with a computer keyboard and mouse, HDTV or monitor, or even your home theater system. Then there’s the Laptop Dock. This is essentially an ultrathin, light laptop with an 11.6″ display, full keyboard and stereo speakers – but it uses your Atrix for processing, storage and connectivity. Snap Atrix into the dock and the Webtop app automatically launches, giving you side-by-side access to your standard Android desktop and apps as well as a full Firefox browser for Web-surfing and HTML5 web-based apps. So you’ve basically got the best of all worlds: A computer in the guise of a smartphone that connects to laptop, desktop, and home theater form factors to meet your mobility, productivity and home entertainment needs. And last but not least is Droid Bionic for Verizon. A 4G LTE superphone with a massive 4.3″ qHD display, full Adobe Flash and HTML5 support, and Tegra 2 powered 1080p video playback and 3D gaming capabilities, Droid Bionic does it all and does it on Big Red’s next-gen network. Motorola’s using the tag line, “The End of Waiting” to describe Droid Bionic, and I think I dig it. Think about it: If you’ve got a dual-core computer in your pocket, you don’t have to wait to “get back to the desk” to get things done or be entertained. And if you’re connected to Verizon’s LTE service you shouldn’t have to wait to download Web pages or access online files. The End of Waiting? Sign me up. |
| A Closer Look at the Tesla Model S Posted: 06 Jan 2011 04:39 PM PST I left the opening day CES keynote on a mission. Out the doors of the Hilton Place ballroom, across a back alley between buildings, through a side door of the Las Vegas Convention Center, past a slew of consumer electronics displays and booths that I’d normally take my time perusing, into the lobby of the LVCC, outside again into the cold, clear Las Vegas day, across the traffic of taxis and limos dropping people off at the show, and into the Central Pavilion outdoor area to the NVIDIA tent … And there she stood, shining in the sun all clad in burgundy with cream colored trim. Set off behind chains to keep the rabble rousers away. I’d only ever seen her in photos and video until now. And suddenly the wear and tear of two nonstop days – and nights – at CES seemed to drop from my body, replaced by the excitement of adrenaline and goose bumps as I approached her: The Tesla Model S.
The 2012 Tesla Model S is a four-door fastback electric car built to run entirely on electricity with a range of up to 300 miles. Like the Roadster – Tesla’s first model – the S is bleeding-edge green car technology built for consumers from a startup tech company’s point of view. Unlike the Roadster, the S is meant to be a refined sports sedan worthy of executives and families of up to seven, with a ton of storage space thanks to that rear liftback, a front trunk, and some clever placement of the batteries that make the thing go. The S is also slated to sell for roughly half the cost of the Roadster; $57,000 base price doesn’t make for a cheap car, but it certainly puts the S in line with the luxury sedans it’ll compete against when it hits the market next year. Except that those sedans don’t run entirely on electricity, and those sedans won’t have a massive 17″ touchscreen and virtual instrument cluster to make fanboys like me drool. You can thank the alternative power geniuses at Tesla for the electric drivetrain stuff. And you can thank the folks at NVIDIA for the infotainment, navigation and virtual instrument stuff – it’s all powered by NVIDIA’s high performance, energy efficient technology. I wasn’t allowed to open the doors to the car (nobody at the show is – Tesla’s rules), and my attempts to take video and photos of the high-res main display were somewhat thwarted by the reflective windows (and my weaksauce photographic skills), but even from the outside looking in the screen looked very high-res, very sharp, and very sweet. I’m going to head back to the tent tomorrow in search of some better shots of the electronics. And, y’know, to ogle the car some more. The Tesla rep onsite, a software engineer, said he’s driven both this particular show car and an engineering prototype of the Model S. He used words like “instant torque,” “incredibly quiet,” and “really refined as compared to the Roadster,” when describing the experience. 2012 is still a year away … I wonder if I can save up 57 grand over the next 12 months before the S goes on sale? |
| T-Mobile Launches NVIDIA Powered LG G-Slate and Dell Streak 7 Posted: 06 Jan 2011 01:33 PM PST T-Mobile launched two NVIDIA powered tablet computers today, continuing the Tegra 2 Coming Out Party that CES has become over the past two days. Basically if you hear the terms “Dual Core” and “Mobile” in the same breath, odds are it’s an NVIDIA product being talked about. First up was the LG G-Slate with Google, an Android 3.0 tablet that was shown ever so briefly onstage before being whisked back into “non production model” land. Expected to be available in the coming months, the G-Slate will be the first 4G tablet on T-Mobile powered by the new tablet-optimized version of Android.
Next was the Dell Streak 7, an Android 2.2 tablet with a 7″ WVGA multitouch display, full Flash 10.1 support and, of course, a Tegra 2 dual-core processor. I got some hands-on time with Streak 7, and it was zippy to launch apps, responsive to multitouch input, and looked pretty good with its new customized Android skin. I also liked the 7″ form factor, which seemed big enough for comfortable Web browsing but small enough for one-handed use and easy thumb typing in portrait mode. Streak 7 is capable of up to 21 Mbps speeds on T-Mo’s HSPA+ network, and T-Mobile reps said the tablet will be available in the near term at a “very competitive” price. |
| LG launches Optimus 2X Dual-Core Superphone Powered by Tegra 2 Posted: 06 Jan 2011 12:10 PM PST CES 2011 may go down as NVIDIA’s coming out party, as everything from phones to tablet computers to electric cars are showing up in Las Vegas with NVIDIA chips on the inside and logos on the outside. Three of the four major US carriers announced one or more NVIDIA-powered devices during yesterday’s press day, and there’s more on tap for today. I’m getting ahead of myself thinking about the T-Mobile and Verizon press conferences scheduled for a few hours from now, though. Yesterday LG made their first dual-core superphone official by announcing the LG Optimus 2X, an Android device powered by the Tegra 2 super chip. Yeah, I took “super chip” right off the press release, but it kinda has a ring to it, no? Super chips in superphones for superheroes, right? I got some hands-on time with a non-final version of the Optimus 2X, which you can check out in the video below. Neither hardware nor software was final on the device I tried, but even still the phone was fast and smooth, and the hardware struck a nice balance between lightweight and solid-feeling. And I always love a shiny brushed metal accent to jazz up the back of a phone. Optimus 2X’s spec sheet reads more like a computer’s features than those of a phone – as well it should considering we’re talking about a mobile computer as much as “just a phone”:
These next-gen features are powered by Tegra 2, which features:
In a nutshell, this all means that your “phone” can now bring multiplayer 3D gaming, full HD video capture/playback, and laptop-level productivity power to your pocket. Literally. What will they think of next? Good question! Check out my roundup of Motorola’s new Tegra 2-based products to get an idea of the answer. |
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