Project Denver: Nvidia announces their ARM strategy for PC’s

ARM announced in 2010 that they would be looking to extend their ARM architecture into other mobile product categories. At the CES 2011 show, Nvidia has announced a project which will allow them to offer ARM processors for PC’s and servers.

Since the beginning of 2010, various pieces of information have been released concerning the arrival of ARM architecture outside of its usual mobile domain, with it being anticipated that they would also be adapted to computers and servers.

ARM is widely used in mobile processors and components, controlling almost the entire Smartphone and tactile tablet market to the disadvantage of Intel who are now working overtime to make up for lost ground.

While Intel are looking to gain a foothold in the mobility field, ARM are themselves looking for opportunities in the market controlled by x86 architecture – computers and servers. This desire to enter new market segments has now been confirmed with the announcement of the ARM Cortex-A15 processor which comes with functions aimed specifically at this market.

CPU and GPU manufacturer Nvidia are interested in the ARM platform and are producing the Tegra family of mobile application processors, with the latest release being the Tegra 2 dual core processor which is highly visible in mobile devices being presented at the CES 2011 show in Las Vegas.


ARM to soon be seen at Nvidia
The company was never really seen as a serious player in this field in face of heavy hitters like Texas Instruments and Qualcomm who already had strong market positions, although they have still managed to have a certain degree of success with their processor.

Nvidia now wants to take things even further, exploiting the ARM architecture in computers and servers; with it even being possible they will go so far as super calculators. This is the news announced about Project Denver made at the CES 2011 show, with the group aiming to develop these new processors.

The Project Denver  consists of an Nvidia CPU using a set of ARM instructions capable of being integrated into the manufacturers graphics circuits (GPU). To do this, Nvidia has acquired a license from ARM Holdings to be able to develop their own ARM processors while also exploiting the ARM Cortex-A15 platform in their future Tegra application processors.

It can be noted that Nvidia is one of Microsoft’s partners in the development of hardware solutions for the future Windows OS which will be compatible with x86 architectures, in addition to ARM as announced during the CES 2011 show.

Nvidia are not yet revealing specific details about their Denver Project or a release date, but this is nevertheless a strong signal being sent to the electronics industry – ARM aren’t looking at just staying in the mobile sphere.