I think some people simply don't understand what a massive achievement this is.

Firstly, the chip is 0.2W max power consumption. That includes the CPU, the "Northbridge" functionality, the "Southbridge" functionality, and the Graphics.

Secondly, it's pretty darn small.

Thirdly, they have the Quake III source, so they could recompile it. They'd have to license the Source engine to prove it could run.

Fourthly, this makes Silverthorne and it's (by comparison) acres of chipset support, look rather pallid (although it's been looking more and more pallid as details have come out).

Fifthly, it's and ARM11 MPCore, which means that the next generation might be multi-core for even more power (almost definitely a single chip 1080p capable engine that will find its way into the <$150 BluRay players of next year). It probably also shows that an ARM11 isn't that slow at processing, certainly it could be far faster than an equivalently clocked VIA C3, and when you add on the dedicated hardware ...

And it's not the only mobile ARM+GPU product. There's dozens of them, from Samsung (using Imagination graphics) and I think AMD/ATI have something too based around Imagineon or whatever it is called. TI, Freescale, Marvell, ....

It's like round 1 in the counter attack against Intel for even daring to suggest that small mobile devices could run x86 processors. C'mon, 0.2W all inclusive, what ya got?

Why am I not that excited?

Q3 came out over 8 years ago.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quake_III_Arena

Didnt some DX7 cards play the game ok?

Looks like it did, but I had to find TRs oldest GPU review to make sure.

http://techreport.com/articles.x/2515/1

Note the test system specs:
Processor: AMD Athlon processor - 1.33GHz on a 266MHz (DDR) bus

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA7-DX motherboard - AMD 761 North Bridge, Via VT82C686B South Bridge

Memory: 256MB PC2100

Sorry Nvidia, color me unimpressed.

Aren't there PowerVR SGX based devices that could do this quite handily already?

Probably because you don't send the 720p to the hand-held display, but to a larger screen/overhead projector at some point.

--Oops, meant as a reply. Anyhow for those comments of "not that impressed", this is the real meaning of running Quake3: 3D Acceleration compatibility with existing code bases, meaning it will be low-cost to port games to their embedded system. This then translates to wider adoption of the device into hand-helds.

I personally see this device being the core of an iPOD killer. Take this to a friend's house, plug in their HDTV, show them a slide show of your pictures, and then some movies you recorded, then play a quick game or two, and then plug it into your car stereo on the way home and jam out. Meanwhile, 9 hours after your charge, it is still running, and fits in your pocket.

-LS

Why must they one-up? Why not join forces? The "Android" OS could theoretically run on a phone containing Nvidia's chips, if they release video drivers for Android. Then you get the best of both worlds, and it's possible since Nvidia and Google aren't really directly competing here.

APX 2500 + Android = <3

at the very least, this shows nvidia is capable of creating general purpose processors, and might one day enter the x86 market, if they see a good opportunity.

Well if it plays Quake 3, it can run XP, or a fairly modern linux distro.... As long as the production version can make the same claims and prove it i would be interested.

a usb splitter and a monitor would be all i needed to make this time a full pc.

/just notices the 720p output/ drool....

now, whats the battery life for production units ?

The related Beyond3D article is pretty good. Reads like an UberGerbil rant.

Huh. Didn't know nVidia was going to expand into this market.

Isn't Android a software platform. Doesn't make sense to compare it to Nvidia's hardware.