NVIDIA's Tegra 2 Take Two: More Architectural Details and Design Wins

Tegra Optimized Smartphone Games: Tegra Zone

For NVIDIA to build a name for itself in the smartphone and tablet space, its SoCs have to offer something different. Being the first to dual core is a nice thing to brag about but Qualcomm and TI will be shipping dual core SoCs in 2011 as well. NVIDIA views its close relationship with console and PC game developers as one of its major strengths in the market. NVIDIA hopes to leverage its developer relations as a Tegra platform advantage. 

The how is really quite simple. NVIDIA is working with many of its existing partners as well as some new ones in the smartphone space to release Tegra optimized titles for Android every quarter. The goal is to have at least one killer title every quarter. By the end of 2011 NVIDIA expects to have over 100 Tegra optimized titles available.

The titles will be available through a custom marketplace on Android called Tegra Zone. All Tegra 2 enabled phones will have the Tegra Zone app that you can use to find, purchase and download Tegra optimized games.

The purchase process works over the Android Market system, you just purchase from within the Tegra Zone app instead of using Market.

NVIDIA provided a few examples of what Tegra 2 optimized games could look like. Below is a quick comparison between Backbreaker running on iOS and Tegra 2:

Turn up detail and quality settings, include some more visuals and you’ve got the gist of the difference between a Tegra 2 game and a regular title.

The difference is nice but I personally don’t feel like it’s enough by itself to move users to Tegra 2 based phones. It’s simply a nice adder for Tegra 2 owners. Ultimately it’s performance, battery life and the quality of the devices that will sell NVIDIA based handsets.

Working with developers this early on gives you a hint at NVIDIA’s future smartphone strategy. NVIDIA sees gaming as a huge part of what will drive smartphone innovation in the future, so if you look back at NVIDIA’s strategy from the early days of 3D gaming on the PC you can probably get a good idea of what to expect from Tegra in the future.