Reports are circulating online that Nintendo's upcoming successor to the Switch console, tentatively referred to as the "Switch 2," will offer backward compatibility for physical game cards and digital purchases from the current Switch library. While Nintendo has yet to officially announce the new console, speculation points to a potential reveal as early as next month for a 2024 launch. The backward compatibility claims first surfaced last year when Nintendo America President Doug Bowser hinted at supporting continuity between console generations to minimize the sales decline when transitioning hardware. New momentum behind the rumors comes from gaming industry insiders Felipe Lima and PH Brazil, who, during recent podcasts, stated the Switch 2 has backward compatibility functionality already being shared with game developers.

Well-known gaming leakers "NateTheHate" and others have corroborated that testing is underway for playing current Switch games on new hardware. If true, this backward compatibility would be a consumer-friendly move that breaks from Nintendo's past tendencies of forcing clean breaks between console ecosystems. While details remain unconfirmed by Nintendo, multiple credible sources point to the upcoming Switch successor allowing gamers to carry forward both their physical and digital libraries to continue enjoying this generation's releases. If the compatibility remains, the hardware platform could stay in the playing field of the same vendor—NVIDIA—who provided Nintendo with Tegra X1 SoC. The updated version of the SoC could use a fork of NVIDIA's Orin platform based on Ampere GPU with DLSS, but official details are yet to be seen.

Nintendo has published its quarterly financial results for the period ending March 31 (2024)—the numbers indicate that their trusty Switch hybrid console has continued to sell surprisingly well, despite industry watchdogs anticipating a sharp decline in late 2023. A Bloomberg Japan report has extracted crucial information from an important corporate investor call—Shuntaro Furukawa, the current company president, announced another sales milestone. The Switch has reached 139.36 million units sold (as of 31st December 2023) since its original rollout back in March 2017—it has the potential to outsell Sony's classic PlayStation 2 home console. Nintendo's CEO adhered to his company's strict script and did not address the big red elephant in the (conference) room—the highly anticipated Switch successor is an industry open secret—instead focusing on the current iteration being their "main business" going into FY2024-2025.

Despite recent "better than expected" financial figures, the Nintendo Switch is on a sales decline (going back several years)—the gaming community expected improved hardware to arrive at some point before 2024, but the House of Mario is in no rush to take on current generation Sony and Microsoft home console models. Furukawa-san stated that Nintendo will discuss its plans for the financial future during a May earnings briefing—this is largely in line with past declarations, the "Switch 2" is not arriving before Spring 2024. The latest reports suggest that the next Nintendo Direct presentation is scheduled for next week—perhaps February 15. Microsoft's Phil Spencer has teased a major Xbox "business update" announcement within the same timeframe.

Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger considers NVIDIA "extraordinarily lucky" to be leading the AI hardware industry. In a recent public discussion with the students of MIT's engineering school to discuss the state of the semiconductor industry, Gelsinger said that Intel should be the one to be leading AI, but instead NVIDIA got lucky. We respectfully disagree. What Gelsinger glosses over with this train of thought is how NVIDIA got here. What NVIDIA has in 2023 is the distinction of being one of the hottest tech stocks behind Apple, the highest market share in a crucial hardware resource driving the AI revolution, and of course the little things, like market leadership over the gaming GPU market. What it doesn't have, is access to the x86 processor IP.

NVIDIA has, for long, aspired to be a CPU company, right from its rumored attempt to merge with AMD in the early/mid 2000s, to its stint with smartphone application processors with Tegra, an assortment of Arm-based products along the way, and most recently, its spectacularly unsuccessful attempt to acquire Arm from Softbank. Despite limited luck with the CPU industry, to level up to Intel, AMD, or even Qualcomm and MediaTek; NVIDIA never lost sight of its goal to be a compute hardware superpower, which is why, in our opinion, it owns the AI hardware market. NVIDIA isn't lucky, it spent 16 years getting here.

The rumors of Nintendo's next-generation Switch handheld gaming console have been piling up ever since the competition in the handheld console market got more intense. Since the release of the original Switch, Valve has released Steam Deck, ASUS made ROG Ally, and others are also exploring the market. However, the next-generation Nintendo Switch 2 is closer and closer, as we have information about the chipset that will power this device. Thanks to Kepler_L2 on Twitter/X, we have the codenames of the upcoming processors. The first generation Switch came with NVIDIA's Tegra X1 SoC built on a 20 nm node. However, later on, NVIDIA supplied Nintendo with a Tegra X1+ SoC made on a 16 nm node. There were no performance increases recorded, just improved power efficiency. Both of them used four Cortex-A57 and four Cortex-A53 cores with GM20B Maxwell GPUs.

For the Nintendo Switch 2, NVIDIA is said to utilize a customized variant of NVIDIA Jetson Orin SoC for automotive applications. The reference Orin SoC carries a codename T234, while this alleged adaptation has a T239 codename; the version is most likely optimized for power efficiency. The reference Orin design is a considerable uplift compared to the Tegra X1, as it boasts 12 Cortex-A78AE cores and LPDDR5 memory, along with Ampere GPU microarchitecture. Built on Samsung's 8 nm node, the efficiency would likely yield better battery life and position the second-generation Switch well among the now extended handheld gaming console market. However, including Ampere architecture would also bring technologies like DLSS, which would benefit the low-power SoC.

Nintendo's Switch console is one of the most successful consoles ever made by the Japanese company. It has sold in millions of units and has received great feedback from the gaming community. However, as the hardware inside the console becomes outdated, the company is thinking about launching a new revision of the console, with the latest hardware and technologies. Today, we got ahold of information about the graphics side of things in Nintendo's upcoming console. Powered by NVIDIA Tegra SoC, it will incorporate unknown Arm-based CPU cores. The latest rumors suggest that the CPU will be accommodated with NVIDIA's Ada Lovelace GPU architecture. According to @kopite7kimi, a known hardware leaker, who simply replied to VideoCardz's tweet with "Ada", we are going to see the appearance of Ada Lovelace GPU architecture in the new SoC. Additionally, the new Switch SoC will have hardware accelerated NVIDIA Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS) and 4K output.

Nintendo is reportedly preparing to unveil an updated Nintendo Switch console later this year featuring a larger Samsung OLED display. The upcoming model is rumored to feature a 7-inch 720p rigid OLED screen from Samsung Display Co with an initial monthly production target of just under one million units. The screen would be significantly larger than the 6.2-inch screen currently found on the Switch, if Nintendo is to keep the same form-factor the bezels will be significantly thinner. The new model is also likely to feature an upgraded NVIDIA Tegra chip with support for 4K DLSS 2.0 when docked, this will introduce further difficulty for developers who have struggled with the difference between resolutions.

According to the report of DigiTimes, which talked about TSMC's 5 nm silicon manufacturing node, they have reported that NVIDIA is also going to be a customer for it and they could use it in the near future. And that is very interesting information, knowing that these chips will not go in the next generation of GPUs. Why is that? Because we know that NVIDIA will utilize both TSMC and Samsung for their 7 nm manufacturing nodes for its next-generation Ampere GPUs that will end up in designs like GeForce RTX 3070 and RTX 3080 graphics cards. These designs are not what NVIDIA needs 5 nm for.

Being that NVIDIA already has a product in its pipeline that will satisfy the demand for the high-performance graphics market, maybe they are planning something that will end up being a surprise to everyone. No one knows what it is, however, the speculation (which you should take with a huge grain of salt) would be that NVIDIA is updating its Tegra SoC with the latest node. That Tegra SoC could be used in a range of mobile devices, like the Nintendo Switch, so could NVIDIA be preparing a new chip for Nintendo Switch 2?

NVIDIA today raised the bar higher still for streaming media players — unveiling the next generation of SHIELD TV, which delivers unmatched levels of home entertainment, gaming and AI capabilities right into the living room, starting at $149.

The two new SHIELD models — SHIELD TV and SHIELD TV Pro — provide exceptional visual and sound experiences. Their new Tegra X1+ processor, delivering up to 25 percent more performance than its predecessor, helps bring to life Dolby Vision for ultra-vivid imagery and Dolby Atmos for extraordinary audio. Its computational prowess dramatically improves picture quality by using AI to upscale HD video streams into 4K resolution.

"This is super cool;" "I've never seen anything like it;" "How do I get my hands on one?" Talk to NVIDIA recruiter Lisa Calderon and she'll tell you she has a secret weapon when it comes to getting tech's top talent talking to her. It's a foot long, one-and-a-half inches wide and covered with - to the uninitiated - strange gold markings. "Everyone asks the same thing," Calderon says. "'Can I have one?' And, of course, 'can I take another one for my 'friend'?'"

It's the NVIDIA ruler. And, as many NVIDIANs have learned, taking this modest slab of PCB board to the right place - and showing it to the right people - gets an immediate reaction. "Every electrical engineer that I've showed it to has instantly said 'I need one of these right now,'" says Josh, an NVIDIA ASIC architect, who has mailed bunches of them to contacts around the industry. Each time the ruler appears at NVIDIA's internal company store - which has sold 5,000 of these rulers so far - it sells out in minutes. Thousands more have been snatched up at industry conferences such as NIPS - the long-running deep-learning conference - where its appearance created a social media sensation. Employees at competitors will sidle up to our booth at industry events to trade bundles of their swag for it. It's never been made available to the public. But, if you're quick, you can find one on eBay for 10 times its modest employee-only price of $3.50 (when it's available). The only sure to way to get one: make friends with someone at NVIDIA.

AMD has definitely been on the upswing in recent times, with CEO Lisa Su having seemingly conducted a frail, collapsing company through the muddiest waters in its history. The general sentiment towards the company seems to now be leaning towards the "bullish" side of the equation, which translated into a cool $10.66 per stock at Friday's closing time (having increased, after hours, towards the $10.80 mark. This is great news for a company which has essentially increased their stock value by a factor of four in the last year alone.

Shares of AMD's rival Nvidia, however, have risen 60% in the past three months and nearly 200% in the past year. NVIDIA's share value closed last Friday at a historic $100.41 (having since declined towards $99.55), over a strong bullish sentiment towards the company, which has recently signed a Warrant Termination Agreement with Goldman Sachs for a $63 million value. This basically shows investors that the company has sufficient cash so as not to allow them to see their share value diluted by the sudden entry in circulation of $63 million of shares, should Goldman Sachs exercise their (now terminated) warrant.

After months of speculation, the lid is off Nintendo's "NX" project, with the company finally announcing today its much-awaited games console, the Nintendo Switch. With an expected release slated for March 2017, the console blurs the line between a games console and a handheld device, by making use of a docking station which will allow it to connect to a television, much like a traditional games console, while instantly entering a so called "portable mode" when it is undocked. As both a console and a portable device, the Nintendo Switch will use cartridges known as Game Cards, displaying games in a "high definition display" embedded on the console while on the go, with two detachable Joy-Con controllers stepping in as input devices.

For PC hardware enthusiasts, that may not be all too interesting. What is arguably more interesting is that this games console will make use of NVIDIA hardware: most notably, a custom Tegra processor is the one pulling out all of the console's processing needs, with the graphics being served by what the company calls "the same architecture as the world's top-performing GeForce gaming graphics cards."

Elon Musk handed over the reins of one of Tesla Motors' most important research and development divisions, autopilot, to chip whiz Jim Keller. Keller joined Tesla Motors as Vice President of Autopilot Hardware Engineering. With Tesla being at the very frontier of automobile development, and self-driving cars being the next big thing for the industry, Keller holds an enviable, albeit challenging position.

Jim Keller led teams that designed some of AMD's most commercially successful processors, before a stint at Apple, where he helped it gain hardware self-reliance with the company's Ax series SoCs; and returning to AMD, and leading the team that designed the company's upcoming "Zen" and K-12 micro-architectures. Tesla cars are currently driven by electronics powered by NVIDIA Tegra SoCs. With NVIDIA's immeasurable investments in deep-learning tech that forms the foundation of self-driving car hardware, and Tesla Motors yet choosing a CPU designer to lead its autopilot division, it's easy to speculate that Musk's company is seeking the same kind of hardware self-reliance that Apple did, as its iOS devices were taking off.

Transporting the world closer to a future of auto-piloted cars that see and detect the world around them, NVIDIA today introduced NVIDIA DRIVE automotive computers -- equipped with powerful capabilities for computer vision, deep learning and advanced cockpit visualization. NVIDIA will offer two car computers: NVIDIA DRIVE PX, for developing auto-pilot capabilities, and NVIDIA DRIVE CX, for creating the most advanced digital cockpit systems. These automotive-grade in-vehicle computers are based on the same architecture used in today's most powerful supercomputers.

"Mobile supercomputing will be central to tomorrow's car," said Jen-Hsun Huang, CEO and co-founder, NVIDIA. "With vast arrays of cameras and displays, cars of the future will see and increasingly understand their surroundings. Whether finding their way back to you from a parking spot or using situational awareness to keep out of harm's way, future cars will do many amazing, seemingly intelligent things. Advances in computer vision, deep learning and graphics have finally put this dream within reach.

TechPowerUp is giving away an NVIDIA Shield Tablet, the most powerful handheld game console, which can double up as a conventional Android tablet. Powered by NVIDIA's in-house Tegra silicon, the Shield Tablet has so much processing power, that NVIDIA created its very own game and app marketplace that sells games, which take advantage of that power. And that's on top of Google Play Store, which sells games that just any Android device could play. The tablet comes with an ergonomic game controller, which gives you the kind of control you expect from a conventional game console. To participate, simply "Like" our Facebook page, if you haven't already, and fill up a short form (or have Facebook do it for you). One lucky winner will be randomly picked at the end of the giveaway.To participate, visit this page.

HP today announced a new lineup of sleek consumer PCs including, two new powerful HP ENVY x2 detachable PCs designed to deliver a notebook experience for productivity, but quickly transform to a tablet for entertainment and apps; the ultra-portable HP Pavilion x2 detachable PC designed for customers who want to simplify their life with a single device that transforms from tablet to laptop; and two new colorful HP Chromebooks that bring the power of the Chrome OS for a fast, simple, protected internet experience.

"Customers have told us they want devices that offer flexibility and performance while reflecting their personal sense of style," said Mike Nash, vice president, Product Management, Consumer Personal Systems, HP. "The products we are announcing today include innovative designs, vibrant color options, choice of operating system and computing power to enable the way that customers communicate, play and live."

Acer expands its Chromebook portfolio with a model that delivers enhanced mobile performance for graphic-intense apps, games and more; up to 13 hours of battery life and option for full HD display takes Chromebook from workday productivity to nighttime entertainment.

Acer America today announced the Acer Chromebook 13, the industry's first Chromebook powered by an NVIDIA Tegra K1 mobile processor and the company's first with a 13.3-inch display. The Chromebook 13 enhances Acer's already leading position in this category.

For the sixth year running, NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA) has clinched a Best Choice Award at Computex, picking up the honor for NVIDIA GRID technology, as well as a coveted "Golden Award" for the NVIDIA Tegra K1 mobile processor. NVIDIA's honors mark the longest Best Choice Award win-streak of any international Computex exhibitor. More than 475 technology products from nearly 200 vendors competed for this year's recognition.

Tegra K1 is a 192-core super chip, built on the NVIDIA Kepler architecture -- the world's most advanced and energy-efficient GPU. Tegra K1's 192 fully programmable CUDA cores deliver the most advanced mobile graphics and performance, and its compute capabilities open up many new applications and experiences in fields such as computer vision, advanced imaging, speech recognition and video editing.

ORIGIN PC announced today an exclusive promotion on their award-winning line of GENESIS, MILLENNIUM, CHRONOS desktops and EON laptops. Customers who purchase any ORIGIN PC gaming desktop or laptop starting today will receive a free digital copy of the highly anticipated PC title, Watch Dogs and a free EVGA Tegra NOTE 7 tablet. The EVGA Tegra NOTE 7 tablet is the perfect traveling companion - combining a lightning-fast NVIDIA Tegra 4 mobile processor, a brilliant 7-inch HD display in a sleek, comfortable design and up to 32GB of expandable storage. Play the latest games at full speed, capture stunning photos, watch HD video for up to ten hours and listen to your favorite music with NVIDIA PureAudio. It's mobile freedom at the speed of life and free of charge only from ORIGIN PC. Users can download the free Watch Dogs ctOS Mobile Companion application through the Google Play Store with their new EVGA Tegra NOTE 7 tablet to play with a friend!

"The first time we were introduced to Watch Dog's ctOS Mobile Companion application, we immediately thought that every user should experience this on an ORIGIN PC and with a friend who's on an EVGA Tegra Note Tablet." said Kevin Wasielewski ORIGIN PC CEO and cofounder. "We're all huge gamers at ORIGIN PC and Watch Dogs is one of those highly anticipated games that you definitely must play with a friend. Now whether they own an ORIGIN PC or not, you can still play competitively online with your friends using the new EVGA Tegra Note 7 tablet that comes free with your ORIGIN PC!"

NVIDIA today opened the door to the development of a new generation of applications that employ computer vision, image processing and real-time data processing -- with the launch of a developer platform based on the world's first mobile supercomputer for embedded systems.

The NVIDIA Jetson TK1 Developer Kit provides developers with the tools to create systems and applications that can enable robots to seamlessly navigate, physicians to perform mobile ultrasound scans, drones to avoid moving objects and cars to detect pedestrians.

ViewSonic Corp., a leading global provider of visual solution products, announced its second-generation smart displays today.
The 24" (23.8" Vis.) VSD241 is a self-contained Android 4.2 Jelly Bean-based smart display which delivers blazing fast performance, courtesy of an NVIDIA Tegra 3 quad-core processor, making it perfect for local Android apps and cloud-based computing.

Paired with a 2 MP webcam with integrated microphone for video conferencing, and built-in speakers, this dual-point optical touch screen display is ideal for commercial vertical markets such as signage, point of information, and kiosks for interactive applications in enterprise, SMB, education, POS, hospitality and more.

ASUS today announced the new Transformer Pad TF701T, a 10.1-inch Android tablet with a stunning 2560 x 1600 IPS display, the latest high-performance NVIDIA Tegra 4 quad-core processor and a lightweight Mobile Dock with USB 3.0.

The new ASUS Transformer Pad is perfect for on-the-go entertainment, thanks to a durable metallic design that's just 8.9mm thick and weighs 585g. A high-quality speaker with ASUS SonicMaster audio technology gives loud, clear sound for music, movies and games, while the 17-hour battery life when docked means the new ASUS Transformer Pad lasts for two full working days between charges.

NVIDIA today reported revenue for the second quarter of fiscal 2014, ended July 28, 2013, of $977.2 million, up 2.4 percent from $954.7 million in the previous quarter. GAAP earnings per diluted share were $0.16, up 23.1 percent from $0.13 in the previous quarter. Non-GAAP earnings per diluted share were $0.23, up 27.8 percent from $0.18 in the previous quarter.

"The GPU business continued to grow, driving our fourth consecutive quarter of record margins," said Jen-Hsun Huang, president and chief executive officer of NVIDIA. "We also began shipping GRID virtualized graphics, which puts the power of NVIDIA GPUs into the datacenter. We look forward to a strong second half, with new Tegra 4 devices coming to market, SHIELD moving beyond the U.S. and broader sampling of Project Logan, our next-generation Tegra processor, which brings Kepler, the world's most advanced GPU, to mobile."

Although NVIDIA's Tegra line of SoCs are among the best performing there are on the market; the high-end SoC market is dominated by Qualcomm and Samsung. These chips are built from scratch by the companies, but the underlying CPU and GPU architectures are licensed from ARM, and the likes of Imagination Technologies, respectively. Imagination's PowerVR graphics cores make up over 80 percent of the embedded GPU market-share. There's a big change of plans at NVIDIA. The company is beginning to think that its expertise in GPU is better proliferated in the mobile SoC space not by waiting for Tegra to gain a foothold, but by licencing its GPU IP (intellectual property) to whoever is willing pay up, much in the same way ARM and Imagination do.

NVIDIA spokesperson David Shannon, in a recent blog post, wrote: "our next step is to license our GPU cores and visual computing patent portfolio to device manufacturers to serve the needs of a large piece of the market... We'll start by licensing the GPU core based on the NVIDIA Kepler architecture, the world's most advanced, most efficient GPU. Its DX11, OpenGL 4.3, and GPGPU capabilities, along with vastly superior performance and efficiency, create a new class of licensable GPU cores. Through our efforts designing Tegra into mobile devices, we've gained valuable experience designing for the smallest power envelopes. As a result, Kepler can operate in a half-watt power envelope, making it scalable from smartphones to supercomputers."

HP today announced the HP SlateBook x2 and the HP Split x2, two detachable PCs that offer the full functionality of a notebook with a removable screen that also is a sleek tablet. Powered by the Android and Microsoft Windows 8 operating systems (OS), respectively, these versatile two-in-one devices combine power and portability, giving customers the flexibility to create, consume and share content in more places.

HP's unmatched portfolio of next-generation PCs is designed to enable users to connect with their information on devices that easily adapt to their needs. By releasing the magnetic hinge, users can move elegantly between the two form factors -- tablet and notebook PC -- all in one device.

NVIDIA updated its GPU micro-architecture roadmap at the 2013 GPU Technology Conference (GTC). Currently spearheaded by the "Kepler" micro-architecture, which drives its GeForce, Quadro, and Tesla product lines, and which will drive Tegra mobile SoCs in 2014; NVIDIA's next-generation "Maxwell" could make its debut some time in 2014. Going by NVIDIA's graph that puts performance-per-Watt against time, "Maxwell" should nearly double performance. Maxwell GPUs feature unified virtual memory, which lets CPUs treat graphics card memory as system memory, for faster general-purpose performance.

Although not backed by a tentative launch year, and assuming "Maxwell" has its run for another two years, 2016 could see the launch of NVIDIA's "Volta" GPU micro-architecture. In addition to advancements by its predecessors, "Volta" could introduce stacked DRAM technology. It would enable GPU memory bandwidths as high as 1 TB/s. Current high-end graphics cards such as GeForce Titan and Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition, are capable of breaching the 300 GB/s mark, so NVIDIA's claims don't sound far-fetched.