NVIDIA Introduces dual Cortex A9 based Tegra 2

I can't help but be very excited about these Cortex A9 boards coming out. The ARM processors are getting better really fast. The power / performance ratio compared to the Atoms is just so good, it's almost ridiculous.

A few years ago we had the iPhone, then the 3GS came with the Cortex A8 processor and the speed improvement is enormous. The Cortex A9 has an even better performance / Hertz ratio. Anand expects a similar (iPhone -> 3GS) speedup is possible with the Cortex A9.

The Tegra has 2 cores, but even more cores are possible. According to Anand, the chips can also scale to beyond 2GHz on a 28nm design. There are many chip producers creating chips on the Cortex A9 design, there is enough choice and difference between chips to create decent competition. With the way the ARM designs are licensed, silicon bakers can add whatever functionality they want, targetting smartphones, tablets, netbooks, whatever.

Most companies have chip samples and development boards ready by now. I can't wait to see what the A9 will bring us in the next 2 years.