Nvidia bets on Windows smartphones with new tools

In a bid to convince developers to use its GPU (graphics processing unit) processors, Nvidia has launched a rapid development kit for Windows-based smartphones.

The kit integrates the company’s GoForce 5500 chip with Microsoft’s Windows Mobile 5.0, allowing handset makers to get their new products on store shelves faster, Nvidia said Wednesday at the Computex trade show.

A GPU is a secondary processor dedicated solely to graphics, freeing the main chip to manage primary system tasks.

Nvidia’s new MobileMedia Platform works by linking that GPU with drivers, middleware and APIs (application programming interfaces) for processors from Intel Corp. and Freescale Semiconductor Inc.

That can halve a developer’s design schedule from 12 months to six months, said Michael Rayfield, general manager of the handheld business unit for Nvidia Corp., Santa Clara, California.

Nvidia’s new platform represents a bet that Windows will win the battle to become the dominant OS on mobile electronics.

“We believe it’s just a matter of time before Windows, with its huge third-party network, wears away the competitors and takes over market share from Symbian and Palm,” said Rayfield.

The kit can also empower developers to add extra features, creating smartphones that can rival the audio quality of Apple Corp.’s iPod and the 3D graphics display quality of handheld gaming units like Sony’s PlayStation Portable. That is because a dedicated graphics processor can handle multimedia tasks far more efficiently than a general purpose processor.

“In the untethered world of handsets, you can’t afford to throw a 2GHz CPU at this capability because it kills your battery,” Rayfield said.

Multimedia 3G devices already using Nvidia’s GoForce chips include smartphones from Kyocera Corp., Motorola Inc. and Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB.

Nvidia thinks the new platform will attract many more developers. The market for media-rich mobile devices will rise from 150 million in 2007 to nearly 700 million units in 2011, the company said.

Already, three companies announced at Computex they had used Nvidia’s platform to design their new products: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.’s i310 smartphone and Modeo LLC’s Forseer mobile TV smartphone (manufactured by HTC Corp.) are due out in the second half of 2006, while ReignCom’s iRiver G10 gaming device released in May.