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NVIDIA has recently been taking great strides to diversify beyond just the graphics cards it’s known for.  NVIDIA has been getting in a bit of trouble with Intel for all its expansion, but it seems willing to fight and lawsuits Intel will push out.  Meanwhile NVIDIA is showing off its computer-on-a-chip system at CTIA.

The system, dubbed Tegra is designed to be used in Mobile Internet Devices, netbooks, or any other small devices (smartphones maybe?).  NVIDIA is claiming the Tegra system will be able to handle 1080p video output over HDMI, using just a half watt of power.  While not outputting HD video, the Tegra system uses so little power on standby that the device using Tegra will likely be able to run for days on standby.

To show off Tegra, NVIDIA had a mobile device with a custom OS that seems to borrow a bit of Android and Mac OS X as well as the chipset inside a gutted HP Mini.  The Mini is said to have shown no difficulty with a 720p video, which is quite impressive.  Though NVIDIA has promised 1080p, any sort of HD video takes a lot of power to process, and to do it on such a small chipset is quite surprising.

The Tegra system should be included in devices by the end of the year, with a possible mobile device from NVIDIA and an OEM at a $99 price point.  There was no talk about who the OEM or the companies that will be releasing Tegra devices, though NVIDIA is saying it has a significant announcement to make at Computex Taipai in June about Tegra.

Read [Electronista]