Speaking at the Computex show in Taiwan, Nvidia has been promoting its powerful line of 'mobile internet devices on a chip', which promise laptop power computing in a low-end price point smartphone.

“These machines will dispel the myth that you have to make trade-offs when you use these devices,” says Nvidia's mobile business manager, Michael Rayfield.

Tegra chips are proving to be massively popular with original device manufacturers - with several announcing sub-$100 devices at Mobile World Congress - which means they could quickly and easily wind up being branded by the top companies in the mobile industry. They support Windows, Linux and Android.

The chipset promises computing power capable of, for example, recording HD video on a mobile phone, then playing it back via cable or Bluetooth to a suitably equipped TV at full 720p resolution. And given that the chips only consume around one watt of power, extended battery life of up to eight hours use is expected.

Qualcomm recently announced similar specifications for its Snapdragon chipset, though this is more focused on connectivity than multimedia.

The first devices are expected shortly, and will run Windows Mobile. Thereafter Linux is expected to be included in the Tegra architecture's compatibility list, along with Android next year.