Nvidia Tegra 2 goes 3D

Nvidia will be shipping a Tegra 2 3D processor this year as TechEye reports, intended for use in mobile gadgets featuring a 3D screen. The new Tegra 2 3D will be based on a Dual Cortex A9 clocked at up to 1.2 GHz, offering 5520 MIPS. According to the slide, Nvidia will start churning them out some time in the first quarter.

It can be reasoned coming mobile handsets will offer a Master Image TN-LCD display using cell parallax, a technology using the individuals cells to create a 3D effect instead of a parallax barrier, as Nintendo will be using in its 3DS console.

Master Image's Roy Taylor, a former green goblin, also explained looking at a mobile or a tablet basically kills peripheral vision, allowing the 3D effect to work its magic. It's the same in the cinema because one is plonked in front of a large screen, yet also thanks to the glasses.

Actually, its the shutter glasses which make 3D tellies function, thanks to them shutting out peripheral vision. Without the shutter glasses, the brain couldn't cope all too well with all the real life surrounding a telly with a fixed position. Taking a glimpse to the right or left would make things all wobbly and warbly. Tablet and mobile phone users will be staring at a 3D screen and always move it around in line of sight, inside the viewing cone.

This is the reason one can call Nvidia's Tegra 2 3D the real deal. It will be hitting smartphones and tablets this spring, offering new ways of earning money for companies and their shareholders, while consumers trade in their wages for pleasure and cheap thrills to be had without leaving the sofa.

Upcoming 3D tablets and phones will also pose a difficulty to Nintendo and its 3DS console, as well as Apple and its current generation of iPhones, iPods and iPads. Master Image itself has already shown off a Hitachi handset offering a slide-up 3D display.

Nintendo won't be hit so hard thanks to its strong heritage - kids, as well as some grown-ups, will love playing Mario, Zelda and third-party titles such as Resident Evil in 3D, as well as watching 3D movies on the console, such as "How To Tame Your Dragon" and "Guardians of Ga'hoole".

Nvidia's Tegra 2 3D holds the promise of being a game changing platform in the mobile arena, much to the detriment of Intel, whose Atom simply can't compete in terms of energy nor graphical performance. It seems trying to shut Nvidia out of the world of netbooks backfired, a sign of imperial hubris, letting Chipzilla fall flat on its face in a new, infant market.