There are some tech rumors that just won??™t go away, one of them being Microsoft??™s iPhone killer smartphone. A new report now suggests that Microsoft may be working with Nvidia on a cellphone that has Nvidia??™s Tegra hardware at its core. And if that report is correct such a phone could only be three months away. Does this make sense or should Microsoft just buy Blackberry maker Research in Motion?
Microsoft has not commented on a Zune phone so far and did not confirm or deny any reports. Rumors about such a phone have typically been squashed by the argument that Microsoft would pose a threat to its Windows Mobile customers if it manufactured its own phone. But a new article published by the Inquirer revives those rumors with an interesting angle. The website suggests that the Microsoft-branded cellphone will be powered by Nvidia's Tegra system-on-a-chip (SoC). The site even pinpoints the phone's release date - 3GSM in February 2009.
The Tegra SoC integrates an ARM-based CPU and an Nvidia GPU core on a single die, in addition to a northbridge, southbridge and primary memory functionality. The first Tegra products are expected hit the market by the end of the year, but are believed to be limited to industrial and automotive applications initially. Since Apple appears to be determined to follow its own SoC route, Microsoft would be a huge win for Nvidia. And if that is in fact the case, the obvious question would be: What happened with Intel? Is the Moorestown SoC too late to join the party?
Source: TG Daily
