Nvidia showcases Tegra 4 CPU on Android & PC-compatible 'Project Shield'

Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
Nvidia surprised on Monday by unveiling a new device dubbed "Project Shield," a hybrid game console with a dedicated controller and screen that runs Android and can wirelessly stream PC games.

Shield


The Project Shield hardware is powered by the company's newly revealed Tegra 4 mobile processor, which is a quad-core chip based on ARM's Cortex A15 reference design. Apple's iPhone and iPad also feature low-power ARM chips.

On its own, Project Shield plays Android games from the Google Play store on its dedicated 5-inch screen. The device can also stream games from a Windows PC powered by Nvidia GeForce GTX GPUs, including titles on Valve's popular Steam platform.

"Project Shield was created by Nvidia engineers who love to game and imagined a new way to play," said Jen-Hsun Huang, co-founder and chief executive officer at Nvidia. "We were inspired by a vision that the rise of mobile and cloud technologies will free us from our boxes, letting us game anywhere, on any screen. We imagined a device that would do for games what the iPod and Kindle have done for music and books, letting us play in a cool new way. We hope other gamers love Shield as much as we do."

Android titles optimized for Project Shield will also be available on Nvidia's TegraZone game store. Streaming Windows PC games requires an Nvidia GeForce GTX 650 or higher.

The device's 5-inch touchscreen has a 1,280 by 720 display packing in 294 pixels per inch. Nvidia referred to the screen as a "retinal" display, clearly taking influence from Apple's own Retina display branding for pixel-packed screens.

Pricing and availability of Project Shield was not announced by Nvidia on Monday, but the company did say at the Consumer Electronics Show that the hardware is expected to ship in the second quarter of 2013.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 35
    gatorguygatorguy Posts: 24,176member


    Note that the OS is the most recent version Jellybean as would be expected.

  • Reply 2 of 35
    I don't get the "streaming Windows PC games" part. I presume they mean stream PC games to this device? But why? If you've got a PC with a GeForce GTX 650, you've already got everything you need to play PC games on a PC.

    Either way, it sounds even less intriguing than competing handheld consoles like he Sony PlayStation Vita and the Nintendo 3DS. And the portable console market is struggling to find footing against rival smartphones and tablets. I predict an uphill battle for this device, if it is going to market.
  • Reply 3 of 35
    ifij775ifij775 Posts: 470member


    Nvidia referred to the screen as a "retinal" display, clearly taking influence from Apple's own Retina display branding for pixel-packed screens.


     


    Apple's lawyers start your engines...

  • Reply 4 of 35
    patsupatsu Posts: 430member
    Probably more a challenge for PS Vita and 3DS than Apple.
  • Reply 5 of 35
    sockrolidsockrolid Posts: 2,789member
    Re: "Pricing and availability of Project Shield was not announced by Nvidia on Monday..."

    This is the problem with CES (and yearly legacy trade shows in general.) CES happens every January, whether or not your products are ready. No, it's not a consumer-focused show. More of an industry insider show. But it doesn't help that CES is scheduled 1 month after the end of the big holiday season and 10 months before the start of the next big holiday season.
  • Reply 6 of 35
    patsupatsu Posts: 430member
    I am more keen to see Sony's Gaikai and Steam on iOS directly.
  • Reply 7 of 35
    solipsismxsolipsismx Posts: 19,566member
    I find it odd, albeit not surprising, that the list Tegra 4 as being only slightly faster than the iPad 4. We're talking about at least a half a year between when Tegra 4 will start shipping and when the iPad 4 was shipping. I would have expected them to do better and I fully expect this image to be the best variance they could find.

    [IMG ALT=""]http://forums.appleinsider.com/content/type/61/id/18839/width/500/height/1000[/IMG]
  • Reply 8 of 35
    bdkennedy1bdkennedy1 Posts: 1,459member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Suddenly Newton View Post



    I don't get the "streaming Windows PC games" part. I presume they mean stream PC games to this device? But why? If you've got a PC with a GeForce GTX 650, you've already got everything you need to play PC games on a PC.

    Either way, it sounds even less intriguing than competing handheld consoles like he Sony PlayStation Vita and the Nintendo 3DS. And the portable console market is struggling to find footing against rival smartphones and tablets. I predict an uphill battle for this device, if it is going to market.


     


    I imagine it streams the picture over the network to a TV.

  • Reply 9 of 35
    patsupatsu Posts: 430member
    solipsismx wrote: »
    I find it odd, albeit not surprising, that the list Tegra 4 as being only slightly faster than the iPad 4. We're talking about at least a half a year between when Tegra 4 will start shipping and when the iPad 4 was shipping. I would have expected them to do better and I fully expect this image to be the best variance they could find.
    1000

    That's load time. It's not so meaningful until we have a more well rounded picture for the entire environment, plus battery life and such.

    Hmm... Availability is not specified. Given Apple's new release cycle, and rumored Intel partnership. We will probably see a completely different picture when the dust has settled.
  • Reply 10 of 35
    rogifanrogifan Posts: 10,669member
    My god that thing is ugly. I'm glad I'm not into hard core gaming. Yuck.
  • Reply 11 of 35

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Gatorguy View Post


    Note that the OS is the most recent version Jellybean as would be expected.



    4.1 or 4.2?

  • Reply 12 of 35
    rogifanrogifan Posts: 10,669member
    sockrolid wrote: »
    Re: "Pricing and availability of Project Shield was not announced by Nvidia on Monday..."
    This is the problem with CES (and yearly legacy trade shows in general.) CES happens every January, whether or not your products are ready. No, it's not a consumer-focused show. More of an industry insider show. But it doesn't help that CES is scheduled 1 month after the end of the big holiday season and 10 months before the start of the next big holiday season.
    Seems to me CES is for the geeks at the Verge, Engadget, c|net to get off on. I'm waiting for Samsung to announce their 8-core greater than 1080p 5" smartphone that everyone can proclaim the death of Apple over. Lenovo is showing off a 27" multi touch table. That sounds real practical, I'm sure it will be a big seller. :lol:
  • Reply 13 of 35

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Rogifan View Post





    Seems to me CES is for the geeks at the Verge, Engadget, c|net to get off on. I'm waiting for Samsung to announce their 8-core greater than 1080p 5" smartphone that everyone can proclaim the death of Apple over. Lenovo is showing off a 27" multi touch table. That sounds real practical, I'm sure it will be a big seller. image


    I like tech and i like CES.


     


    What i don't like is that the press only focus on stupid things like this "tegra 4". It's useless and it's already DOA (If you try and sell something because it has tegra 4 on it). Tegra and devices like this one only matter to irrational fandroids. Even for gamers, the 4th gen iPad will murder any mobile gaming device (if not because of raw power alone, optimization and good titles comes to the table).


    I just can't wait for Apple to be on stage again, later this year.

  • Reply 14 of 35
    mrstepmrstep Posts: 513member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by patsu View Post



    Probably more a challenge for PS Vita and 3DS than Apple.


     


    I think straight-up iOS and Android has been the challenge for PS Vita and 3DS - I can't picture a world in which someone would go and buy this 'Shield' thing. Vita's justification to me was the physical controls and some exclusive games, and while it's fine, I spend way more time on the iPad with the bigger/sharper screen. :P


     


    (OK, part of my justification was that I figured the Vita is the last hurrah of dedicated handheld gaming, so eventually it will end up next to my Merlin, Nintendo LCD Octopus game, Lynx, etc... but "Shield" doesn't change that opinion at all! ;) )

  • Reply 15 of 35
    bdkennedy1 wrote: »
    I imagine it streams the picture over the network to a TV.

    And that's nothing special of course.
    It looks more like a technology demonstrator for Tegra 4 or reference design than a real product that nvidia plans to sell anytime soon.
    Console business is notoriously hard to break into. Portable consoles even more so. If it's not core to nvidia's business, then it'll be canceled if it fails to gain traction, leaving early adopters with a nice piece of console trivia. Nokia N-GAGE, anyone?
  • Reply 16 of 35
    sflocalsflocal Posts: 6,092member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by AppleInsider View Post



    .. Nvidia referred to the screen as a "retinal" display, clearly taking influence from Apple's own Retina display branding for pixel-packed screens...


     


    Quote:

    Originally Posted by ifij775 View Post


    Apple's lawyers start your engines...





    And rightfully so.



    This just goes to show the sad, pathetic, non-innovate state of Apple's competitors.  Leave it to Apple to not only make products that iHaters and Phandroids criticize, but gets copied by the entire industry while "pretending" that it was the natural progression of technology and not Apple's R&D (i.e. "Ultrabooks Inspired by Intel"), but now these a$$hats are copying Apple's marketing phrases too?  That's just shameful.  With the countless number of words in the dictionary, they could not come up with something entirely original???  WTF??



    How will the iHaters spin this?  They eschewed Apple for trying to define the technical description of "retina" displays, and wrote it off as a marketing ploy, yet now a key Android chip provider is using a variation of that same word?  That's total bu11sh!t!



    This reminds me of the movie "Coming to America", where a character essentially copies McDonald's franchise and pretends it's original.  From Wikipedia:



    In the film, the restaurant is owned by Cleo McDowell (John Amos) and based in QueensNew York.[5] It is under investigation from the McDonald's Corporation for allegedly copying their franchise. At one point, McDowell confronts a photographer shooting outside the restaurant, who McDowell believes is working to gather evidence for McDonald's. The logos and typeface are extremely similar, including the names of the dishes: the "Big Mac" becomes the "Big Mc" - Mr. McDowell explains, "They both contain two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles and onions. But they use a sesame seed bun. My buns have no seeds." McDowell, in describing the differences between his logo and McDonald's, explains, "They got the Golden Arches, mine the Golden Arcs." Later in the film, when McDowell is first confronted by King Jaffe Joffer, he is seen reading a McDonald's Operation Manual.



    You getting my drift NVidia?  Samsung?


     

  • Reply 17 of 35
    tylerk36tylerk36 Posts: 1,037member


    For some reason the first thing I thought of was an XBox controller.  It looks like a 1st generation XBox controller with a screen.

  • Reply 18 of 35
    Anything "Hardcore" gaming always looks like someone sneezed whilst holding a pen. I mean Jesus... Being that type of gaming device, its probably going to have shit-tonnes of LEDs adorning it as well.
  • Reply 19 of 35
    I like tech and i like CES.

    What i don't like is that the press only focus on stupid things like this "tegra 4". It's useless and it's already DOA (If you try and sell something because it has tegra 4 on it). Tegra and devices like this one only matter to irrational fandroids. Even for gamers, the 4th gen iPad will murder any mobile gaming device (if not because of raw power alone, optimization and good titles comes to the table).
    I just can't wait for Apple to be on stage again, later this year.

    It's a technology in search of applications. Nvidia Tegra is predominantly for gaming, so they're trying to rally excitement around a product concept. I'm sure if the public goes ape over Project Shield, nvidia will interest one of their partners like Asus or Razer to build and market them. I predict nothing will come of it.
  • Reply 20 of 35

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Suddenly Newton View Post





    It's a technology in search of applications. Nvidia Tegra is predominantly for gaming, so they're trying to rally excitement around a product concept. I'm sure if the public goes ape over Project Shield, nvidia will interest one of their partners like Asus or Razer to build and market them. I predict nothing will come of it.


    Of course! Are you watching Intel? They are pulling a "nvidia".


     


    I sure hope Sony comes with their own OS (for everything). That would be real news. For now, all tech companies are trying to do something together against Apple. What a pity...


     


    They aren't even showing the screen! What sort of demo is this?

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