Nvidia: Tegra Puts 8 Processors Inside Zune HD

We've known since June that Nvidia's Tegra chipset will be powering the Microsoft Zune HD, but the graphics chip specialist decided that today would be a good day to make it official with a press release.

Now that Microsoft has loosed almost all the details about the Zune HD, most importantly its quickly-approaching September 15 launch date, Nvidia is divulging more information about the hardware.

Specifically, the Tegra provides the Zune HD with eight independent processors, each designed for a specific class of tasks - among them are an HD video processor, an audio processor, a graphics processor, and two ARM cores. Furthermore, the processors can work together or independently to minimize power consumption.

“Tegra provides the multimedia muscle in Zune HD,” said Michael Rayfield, general manager of NVIDIA’s mobile business. “Users will love the device’s new design, amazing multimedia features and HD video out capability. Zune HD is a must-have for anyone looking for the best portable digital media player on the market.”

With HD-compatible video, HD Radio receiver, full-screen Internet browsing, Wi-Fi and an OLED touch screen, we're certainly looking forward to the Zune HD. Nvidia says that there are 50 active Tegra processor-based design projects currently in the works today.

Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam served as Tom's Hardware News Director during 2008-2014. He entered tech media in the late 90s and fondly remembers the days when an overclocked Celeron 300A and Voodoo2 SLI comprised a gaming rig with the ultimate street cred.
  • griffed88
    meh, it'll only be good if it gets the third party support that the iphone/ipod touch gets.
    Reply
  • P_haze420
    I still wished that microsoft added the phone in zune hd. It would compete against Iphone and perhaps, beat the shit out of it.
    Reply
  • Glorian
    This looks promising, I'm looking forward to upgrading, I have had my zune 30g for almost 3 years, and has done me good, save for that one new years day :P
    Reply
  • chuckdalton
    I don't care if they put 50 cores in there, I will have to see it work and how user frenidly it is before I'm even tempted to buy it. You can put a porsche engine into a hyunday accent, it will only be a powerful useless car.
    Reply
  • Honis
    If it gets more than 8 hours of battery life this would compete with netbooks. Can't wait for this market to get some competition.
    Reply
  • leon2006
    Its not the hardware that counts.... Its the real world application that make sense to the daily need of the users.

    People that have an IPHONE has no use for this device.

    People who are in the immediate need for an upgrade won't bother with this.

    Single Do it all hardware is key... The IPHONE is becoming the Universal Portable Device. The IPHONE OS is becoming the next DOS/WINDOWS in the portable multi-media business.

    Reply
  • tenor77
    leon2006The IPHONE OS is becoming the next DOS/WINDOWS in the portable multi-media business.
    Personally I think you're over selling the iphone. In terms of importance Blackberry was huge for making phones more than just phones, but there are a lot of smartphone competetors out there with just as much marketshare. It gets a lot of attention but to compare it to Dos? It needs a much larger marketshare first and don't expect companies to use this as their standard issue phone. In my company the Blackberry is still standard issue.
    Reply
  • apoq
    But can it run CUDA? :)
    Reply
  • mlopinto2k1
    chuckdaltonI don't care if they put 50 cores in there, I will have to see it work and how user frenidly it is before I'm even tempted to buy it. You can put a porsche engine into a hyunday accent, it will only be a powerful useless car.Sorry, that is a piss-poor analogy. I would kill to have a Hyundai Accent with a Porsche Engine! That little firecracker in my grannies panties would be one hell of an attraction at a drag strip. =D
    Reply
  • IzzyCraft
    Jeepers it almost deserves the question
    "Can it run Crysis?"
    Reply