The green guys at NVIDIA might take over the world some day. OK, not really, but for now, they are planning to make a big hit out of their mobile-oriented GPU – the APX 2500 HD.

Mabe you’ve heard about the APX 2500 HD video and graphics processing platform back in February this year, when NVIDIA cared to reveal some details and showcased a demo of a iPhone-like handheld device. Here’s the demo, in case you haven’t seen it.



Recently, NVIDIA disclosed some more info on the upcoming APX 2500 HD architecture. The video chip has a power consumption of 50 mW which allows it to run up to 10 hours with a single battery charge. As such, we can fairly say that APX 2500 is clearly aiming at mobile phones, PDAs, and GPS devices. NVIDIA even acknowledged the fact that the first devices to integrate the chip will be a series of GPS devices that could be launched later this year. Phones and PDAs are supposed to wait until 2009.

NVIDIA also informs that the APX 2500 is a single chip solution which has a package slightly smaller than a dime. Believe it or not, this small-form factor is able to accommodate a ARM11 MP core with a maximum clock speed of 750MHz, a GeForce class GPU, a high-definition audio and video processor, memory, and IO system and an image signal processor all in the same package. The chip is HD-ready and can play high-definition video flawlessly through HDMI 1.2 with additional dual display capabilities to view video on both the device and a high-definition display.

Unfortunately, you won’t see 1080p support with this generation. The APX 2500 HD is capable of 720p resolutions in H.264, MPEG-4, and VC-1 formats, while the GeForce GPU (most likely a miniaturized GF 6000 family GPU) is capable of producing 3D graphics with features such as programmable pixel shaders and vertex & lighting, as well as coverage sampled anti-aliasing.

I reckon that in a couple of years we could play DX10/11 games directly on a handheld device. NVIDIA should already be considering a portable game console, if not a portable player or some iPhone destroyer.