NVIDIA Enhances Graphics for Next Generation Palm OS

PalmSource and NVIDIA today announced plans to enhance the graphics acceleration in Palm Powered smart mobile devices running Palm OS Cobalt and Palm OS Garnet. NVIDIA will bring their GoForce family of media processors to bring advanced multimedia support to the OS.

As a member of the Palm OS Ready Program, NVIDIA has licensed Palm OS Garnet and Palm OS Cobalt tools and components designed to enable the creation of software drivers for the NVIDIA GoForce family of media processors and make them available to Palm OS licensees. The GoForce media processors offer advanced features for smart mobile devices, including support for multi-megapixel image capture, accelerated graphics for gaming, and video capture and playback. Using dedicated hardware accelerator engines, the GoForce processors deliver high performance for multimedia applications and drive high-resolution displays, while minimizing battery life consumption on the device.

"Partnering with one of the leading mobile platform providers, PalmSource, supports our business strategy of extending our graphics solutions to deepen our penetration in the market for smart mobile devices," said Phil Carmack, general manager and vice president of handheld group at NVIDIA. "We believe Palm OS licensees will benefit from NVIDIA's cutting-edge technology, manufacturing leadership and global support infrastructure to create successful mobile solutions tailored to the multimedia and entertainment markets."

"Optimizing NVIDIA's GoForce media processors for the Palm OS platform will enable licensees to leverage the tools and resources necessary to build best in class mobile devices for the multimedia market," said David Nagel, president and CEO of PalmSource, Inc.

Palm OS Ready Program
Launched in July 2001, the Palm OS Ready program allows industry-leading component providers to drive faster innovation of Palm Powered Devices and foster growth throughout the Palm Powered Economy. Combining access to key components of Palm OS technology with in-depth technical training and resources, the Palm OS Ready Program allows silicon and peripheral providers to deliver more complete solutions to the Palm OS licensee community enabling Palm OS licensees to bring innovative and differentiated Palm Powered mobile devices to market faster and more efficiently.