Nvidia’s Tegra was first introduced in June 2008, touted as a “computer on a chip” that would saunter into numerous types of device – most notably MIDs – and beat Intel’s Atom at its own game. It’s been all quiet on the Tegra front since, but we’ve finally had the chance to go hands on with Nvidia’s exciting new technology.

The ARM11 core (which is also used in the Zune, several Nokia phones and the HTC Dream) is the main processor but, for tasks that have specialist demands, several other chips are included: a GPU handles gaming and 3D tasks, an audio unit is optimised for mp3 and radio playback, a 2D graphics chip can handle a camera.

Separate chips tackle video encoding and decoding, with Nvidia promising the ability to encode and decode 720p video simultaneously. The board also houses flash and system memory, which are the larger chips towards the bottom of the PCB.

This “modular” approach, according to Bill Henry, the head of the Tegra Mobile Business Unit, has resulted in “the first high definition mobile processor” capable of playing 1080p video – and, indeed, the device we tried handled HD content without so much as a whimper.

Nvidia is also touting Tegra’s environmental credentials. The modular chip is capable of shutting down unnecessary sections: Henry gave the example of mp3 playback, which uses the audio chip and nothing else, explaining that Nvidia’s engineers have had to “target [their] silicon very, very specifically for that task” and “justify…anything you want to do” with the new chip.

The result is tiny power consumption, with Henry claiming that playing SD video sucks only 200mW from the 24W battery, with this figure rising to 500mW at 1080p. He also declared that the entire Tegra chip and its memory never drew more than 1W.

Henry also cited Flash animations, which are featured on “around 85% of sites in the Alexa top 100“. Arguing that a standard laptop, even with a low-power CPU, will draw “between 15W and 35W” when running a web page using Flash, he booted up the same animation on one of the Tegra-powered MID devices, claiming that it used a mere 150mW to deliver the same content.

This, obviously, has a positive effect on battery life. Whereas the average netbook will be lucky to see six or seven hours, Nvidia claims that Tegra devices could last for “25 days” when playing audio, since every other chip, and the screen, can be shut down. Nvidia also mentioned a more believable figure of a day’s solid use when the machine is used for web browsing.

Tegra’s performance and power draw seem up to scratch, then, but we can’t say the same about the Tegra-powered device that Henry demonstrated, with our hands-on test leaving us far from convinced.

Made by Mobinova – the consumer arm of Foxconn – the N910 looked like a small, slim netbook, albeit far flimsier and cheaper, with a cramped keyboard and trackpad that even had Henry slowing down during his demonstration: while the pad itself was responsive, the buttons were uncomfortably tucked away in the corner, much like those on the Dell Mini 10.

After going hands-on with the device ourselves, we can confirm that it’s more uncomfortable than the first archaic netbooks and, while these devices are meant to fill a niche below the netbook, that’s no excuse for making them so difficult to use or cheap to the touch. Henry did have positive musings on the price, though, saying that these devices will be cheaper “than any netbook in the marketplace today”.

The Mobinova also wasn’t running Windows XP, which has now become the de-facto standard for netbooks: because Tegra is built around ARM11 rather than an X86 CPU, it’s not possible to run the popular Microsoft OS, with the devices we’ve seen using Windows Mobile instead. The result is a Windows-style interface with a dock, much like Mac OS X, with popular applications such as Mozilla Firefox and Windows Media Player, both of which launched within seconds.

Henry argued that consumers would be glad to see a Windows OS rather than Linux, which inspired a spate of unfamiliarity-driven returns when it was included with the first netbooks, and that XP isn’t a natural fit for these machines, anyway, claiming that “we’re not a PC, we’re a device to serve up a browsing interface and media”, and that a traditional taskbar and start button would detract from the machine’s main focus as a media and web machine.

According to Henry, Nvidia has demonstrated the Tegra technology to 27 telecommunications companies from around the world, including Orange, Vodafone and T-Mobile, all of whom were apparently impressed but none of whom wanted to run any version of Windows on any device – instead, they all favoured Android-powered devices, none of which are available at the moment. Apparently, devices like the Mobinova N910 could be licensed for use by these companies, but we’re not sure that they’d want to be associated with such a product.

And what of the big players in the netbook market, such as Asus, Acer and Samsung? Thanks to the ARM11 processor, none of those are interested either, put off by the lack of an x86 infrastructure. Henry seemed bullish when asked about the lack of support from phone companies and OEMs, backing his technology to come good in the end, saying that “we know what’s missing [from the marketplace], we can fill that hole, but it’ll take some time”.

It seems that Henry knows that Nvidia has an excellent product on its hands, with Tegra a success in every area: it’s quick in 2D and 3D applications, adept with HD video and music and is wrapped up in an interface that, while not Windows XP, isn’t half bad at all – and all this with a tiny power draw that promises excellent battery life.

It’s also a product that Nvidia predicts will make up 50% of its revenue in the longer term, with more powerful Tegra 2 and 3 parts set to launch in 2010, and that when the first devices are launched towards the end of 2009 they’ll be half Android and half Windows Mobile.

It’s just a shame that, at the moment, the devices we’ve seen using this platform are wholly unconvincing. Until Nvidia demonstrates one of its much-touted MIDs or Smartphones to truly take advantage of this exciting new technology, we’ll still have our reservations.