NVIDIA Tegra Media Pad

NVIDIA general manager of mobile Mike Rayfield today hinted at a future Tegra-based device in coming months in a video interview (seen below) that may hint at links to Apple. The executive told Hexus that an unnamed company is developing a "media pad" that would have 3G and a touchscreen between 7 and 13 inches in size that would be based on the chip. No indication was given as to the feature set other than the entertainment focus.

The revelation is unusual as leaks haven't surfaced of such a device ahead of launch where the company has been willing to share advance knowledge about Tegra's use in other products, such as a Mobinova netbook and the Zune HD.

Officially, NVIDIA only supports Tegra on relatively universal platforms like Android, Windows CE and Windows Mobile. However, the news comes a few months after rumors of an Apple media tablet for Verizon that would match similar specs, up to and including the 3G link. The chipset is also potentially an ideal fit for therumored details as it includes both the ARM processor architecutre, shared with the iPhone and iPod touch, as well as NVIDIA's own GeForce-derived graphics core. Apple has increasingly tied its PCs to NVIDIA and had alluded to an increasingly deeper relationship when the first unibody MacBooks shipped last fall.

Previous rumors have had Apple ordering 10-inch touchscreens and have more recently put the release of a tablet in early 2010.

By Electronista Staff