Nvidia returns to the world of consoles putting Tegra as brain Nintendo Switch

The wait is over and we already know Nintendo Switch, a hybrid between handheld and desktop noted for some controls that engage in a kind of tablet. As promised, the presentation would be based on a video of just over three minutes, enough to make the proposal.

Now it’s dissect the video and go waiting for the Big N and partners will telling you something more about it. The first to be dropped is Nvidia, which was wanting to say was inside one of the next generation consoles.

Nvidia was within PlayStation 3 and on the original Xbox, in new generations won the game people of AMD: Wii U, Xbox One or PS4

Unfortunately specifications have not been disclosed in detail, Nintendo is going to be telling in installments this, and what you see, Nvidia also. Yes you can anticipate that the small console hardware is part of the Tegra family house, designed for mobile devices, but present in set-top boxes and similar devices.

It is very important to note that Nvidia has worked on a chipset that has to adapt to the different needs: when connected to the mains with the TV, or when on the street, powered by batteries. They are very different scenarios and are something that the GPU and the operating system must have very well studied.

Practically we assume that in the case of a mobile console, hardware has this ability to connect to networks via LTE, but this is something that is confirmed.

A console like Nvidia Shield?

There are two devices on the market that can help us measure the possibilities of Nintendo Switch, and both are signed by Nvidia: talk about Shield tablet and Nvidia Shield in its version to place next to the TV. The latter is the newest and has the hardware Tegra X1 (ARM architecture), which manages to run a 4K output.

Nvidia has the difficult task of creating a hardware that moves between the laptop world and living room, with conditions very different energy consumption.

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Unfortunately, we have not seen many powerful titles in these devices; since the vast majority of mobile games are ports, and I’m sure they would give much of themselves with their own development like that can give Nintendo.

A very interesting case would be used one of the most powerful Tegra chipset, presented but not used in products. We talked about the Tegra X2, known internally as Parker. Six cores (Denver 2 + Cortex-A57) that could provide a power of 1.5 TFLOPS in 16 bits.

But beware, we digress about its chances without knowing for sure if you have a similar, or better hardware, but being a Tegra, we do not believe that is very different. Nvidia assures us that have put 500 engineers to work with Nintendo hardware and software Switch.

In short, an Nvidia solution is characterized by offering power at a reduced price, but may be a few steps behind what Microsoft will do again, and also PS4 Pro.

From now until March 2017 we have many things to learn.