Rumor suggests Nvidia's Tegra chip will power the next Nintendo DS

Nvidia has reportedly scored a coup for its fledgling Tegra chip used to run low-power devices with powerful graphics. The graphics chip company may have snagged a slot for Tegra in the next version of the Nintendo DS.

It’s not clear exactly when this new version of the device will ship. Nintendo launched the DSi, the third revision of the DS since 2004, in April. That wasn’t all that long ago. But Theo Valich of Bright Side News writes that Nintendo plans to launch the gadget in the fall of 2010. He suggests it will probably use a new version of the Tegra that Nvidia plans to unveil in February 2010 at the Mobile World Congress show.

If it’s true, it would a big win for the Tegra, which is also being used in Microsoft’s Zune HD music player. Nintendo has already sold more than 110 million DS units and outsold Sony’s PlayStation Portable by more than two-to-one. Sony has just launched a more competitive product, the PSPgo, which has high-definition graphics and accommodates downloadable content.

This new DS would likely be compatible with older games, mainly because the current DS and DSi units run on ARM processors. Tegra’s core is based on an ARM Cortex A9 design. Nvidia’s upcoming chip is likely to be a 40-nanometer chip, which will enable it to have lower power consumption and faster performance. That means a future DS could have both powerful PSP-like graphics and battery life that can last for days. Neither Nintendo nor Nvidia has offered comment.

Nvidia has said before that the Tegra chip took a couple of years to develop and is now being designed into dozens of handheld gadgets. The Tegra has both good graphics, a processor to run general applications, and the ability to operate as a phone.

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