Nvidia talks Tegra, Windows 8 and tablets

Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang says that his company’s Tegra processor will be in both tablets and PCs running Windows 8 by the end of 2012.

According to Huang, a $199 ARM-powered PC categorized as “bottom-of-the-barrel” by today’s x86 standards will be be nothing short of “exquisite” when running Windows 8.

The CEO told Barron’s the OS will be “super light,” enabling a battery to run for “days and days.”

In addition, Huang claimed that designing the equivalent of Apple’s MacBook Air based on an ARM processor would be a “trivial” effort.

The CEO also noted that Windows 8 would dramatically shift the landscape for Nvidia, as he was “guessing” Windows Phone 7 apps will likely run on Windows 8 computers and tablets.

“If you don’t have a mobile strategy, you’re in deep turd. If you’re not in mobile processors now, you’re seven years too late,” Huang emphasized. 



“… [For example, Intel is] speaking the wrong [x86] language… [As such], we’re [really] not worried about them at all. The future for computing is visual and mobile, and we are well positioned to lead in this new era.”

Nvidia ARM-based processors currently power approximately 70% of all non-Apple tablets.

However, as Rachana Khanzode of Reuters points out, the non-iOS tablets have yet to “substantially challenge” Apple’s dominance in the mobile space.