Nvidia unveils Tegra 650 for mobile devices

New chips aimed at high-end handsets

Nvidia has unveiled a new line of processors aimed at mobile devices.

The Tegra 650 'system-on-a-chip' sports an 800MHz ARM CPU, HD video processor, imaging and audio chips and an ultra low-power version of Nvidia's GeForce GPU.

Nvidia said that the entire package is encased on a chip roughly the size of a 5p coin or a US dime.

The chips will support the recording and display of HD video, as well as Wi-Fi antennas and traditional PC peripherals such as disk drives and keyboards.

Nvidia also claims that the chips are up to 10 times more power efficient than current mobile processors with similar hardware.

The company is targeting the Tegra 650 series at high-end mobile handsets, which are increasingly sophisticated and require more powerful multimedia hardware.

Jen-Hsun Huang, president and chief executive at Nvidia, said: "The culmination of nearly 1,000 man years of engineering, Tegra is a completely ground-up computer-on-a-chip architecture that consumes 100 times less power.

"Mobile internet and computing devices built with Tegra are going to be magical."

As with its predecessor, the Tegra APX 2500, the 650 will be used mainly on Windows Mobile handsets.

Nvidia expects the first devices equipped with the Tegra 650 chips to be released before the end of the year.