Nvidia Tegra chipsets finally coming for Windows Phone in 2013?

By Daniel Rubino
last updated

For some reason, everyone is planning for 2013. Guess we should start picking out our clothes now as Nvidia evidently has plans for Windows Phone, three years after knocking it and the same year that Samsung is reportedly dropping the OS.

Nividia's Tegra chipsets have been around for awhile now, heck they even powered the ZuneHD. But besides some Android handsets, they have been absent from the Windows Phone side, leaving plenty of room for mega SoC maker Qualcomm to ride high.

In a leaked roadmap from Heise.de, we can see that in 2013 Nvidia is looking to power Windows Phone handsets using their Tegra/Icera combo "Grey" chipset. Reportedly featuring a 28mm manufacturing process and 2G/3G/4G communication capabilities (something Nvidia is missing now), the chipset looks to be as powerful as Qulcomm's offering but with some Nvidia GPU oomph.

We're still trying to make sense of the layout of this slide, but it is interesting to see Windows and Windows Phone lumped next to each other--reaffirming the notion that both OSs will become closer together, especially as Windows 8 moves to ARM processors.

Source: Heise.de; via: Fudzilla; Thanks, @darkhorse166, for the tip!

Daniel Rubino
Daniel Rubino
Editor-in-chief

Daniel Rubino is the Editor-in-chief of Windows Central, head reviewer, podcast co-host, and analyst. He has been covering Microsoft since 2007 when this site was called WMExperts (and later Windows Phone Central). His interests include Windows, laptops, next-gen computing, and for some reason, watches. Before all this tech stuff, he worked on a Ph.D. in linguistics, watched people sleep (for medical purposes!), and ran the projectors at movie theaters because it was fun.

9 Comments
  • It should be noted that Qualcomm uses the ATI GPU. AMD sold the mobile GPU division to Qualcomm when they bought ATI.
  • This is interesting news seeing as just today we are getting info that Samsung wants to turn their backs on WP7 in 2013.. who will be using the Tegra chips??? hmmm
  • "For some reason, everyone is planning for 2013"That is because windows/phone 8 are going to coexist.
  • Good timing for it. Grey integrates the cellular modem capabilities that nVidia got from their purchase of Icera into the SoC just like Qualcomm does right now, to save on power and cost.If Windows Phone is going to get Tegra, that's certainly the best time to start.
  • Microsoft could have very easily strong armed Nvidia into supporting Windows Phone for Windows 8 access. I mean, I would. Windows is Microsoft's baby. They will support Windows 8 far more than Windows phone, and after all, Windows 8 is Windows 8 whether for tablets or laptops/desktops. It'll be interesting to compare the existence of these "Ultra-Books", this Intel defined Macbook Air competitors, to eventual ARM based Laptops.
  • Am I missing something about this slide? Isn't the vertical axis on the left?
  • That is exactly what I was thinking, haha
  • Leave it up to Windows Phone blogs to misinterpret a Powerpoint slide. The Heise article says nothing about a specific date for Windows Phone. The slide doesn't indicate specific support for an ecosystem, because these logos are not the Y-axis. And finally, the Tegra Grey is "only" a Tegra that comes with an integrated modem. Having none didn't stop other manufacturers to churn out Tegra phones, say using a frickin' external modem. There's no reason why there can't be a WP device with a Tegra _now_, except Microsoft being pansies sucking up to Qualcomm.
  • Nvidia CEO made that statement well before we knew anything about Windows 8. After BUILD their tune might change indeed?