Nvidia has confirmed a long-rumored port of Google's Linux-based Android mobile stack to its Tegra series of ARM11-based mobile applications processors. Due in the second quarter, the Tegra port of Android marks the first official Linux support for the Tegra chips, which target smartphones and MIDs.In its brief announcement of the port, Nvidia said it was working with Google and other OHA members on the port. It referenced both "mobile phones" and "handhelds," but did not detail whether Android would be ported to all chips in its Tegra product family. Nvidia's Tegra chips are fairly standard-issue ARM SoCs based on off-the-shelf ARM11 processor cores sourced from ARM, Ltd. The chips distinguish themselves by integrating fairly powerful GeForce GPUs (graphical processor units) supporting higher-resolution screens than are typically found in smartphones. That could make them a good fit for MIDs and even netbooks, although the Nokia- and Archos-led market for ARM-based mobile Linux has arguably already moved up to superscalar (more than one instruction per cycle) ARM cores, with dual-core just around the corner. Touted capabilities of the three Tegra models announced so far, include:- Tegra APX2500 -- 600MHz, 720p HD encode/decode, screens to 854 x 480
- Tegra 600 -- 700MHz, 720p HD encode/decode, screens to 1280 x 1024
- Tegra 650 -- 800MHz, 720p encode, 1080p decode, displays to 1680 x 1050
- Dual displays and HDMI video out
- Internal display can be used for control applications while video plays out over HDMI
- ARM11-based cores support ARM's "MPCore" interconnect technology
- Audio playback of 130 hours, or video playback of 30 hours
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