NVIDIA buys PortalPlayer

The jostling for position in the potentially lucrative mobile video market continues unabated.

AMD's purchase of ATI seemed like a match made in heaven when it came to consumer-level mobile apps. ATI has long had its fingers in the mobile pie, providing graphic-chip tech for portable devices like PDAs and mobile phones. Coupled with AMDs CPU know-how, the sky seemed the limit. Ultra-Mobile PCs (UMPCs) seem to be getting more press, 3G mobile phones are packed with more and more features like games, onboard video cameras and video conferencing and every second small-time electronics corp appears to be releasing a portable DAP (Digital Audio Player) with onboard video capability to compete with iPods, Sansas and Zunes of the world.

Now it looks like competition has become just a little hotter as NVIDIA is acquiring PortalPlayer (subject to approval by regulators). For anyone unfamiliar, PortalPlayer is the company behind the system-on-a-chip technology that has powered DAPs like the iPod and the Sandisk Sansa e200 series. Perhaps more exciting is PortalPlayer's Preface, which is a tiny LCD screen on the lid of your laptop called Windows Sideshow which displays data, pictures and other widget-like functionality. It's low power so it can run for many hours, apparently even without the laptop being powered up.

After the AMD-ATI merger, it looks like NVIDIA are trying to ensure that they are more than just a graphics procesor company, ripe for the pickings. This could be the toehold into the handheld graphics world they've been looking for.