BusinessWire
February 10, 2006 03:53 AM US Pacific Timezone

Tao Group Partners with NVIDIA to Bring Rich 3D Experience to Mobile Users; intent(R) GamePlayer Coupled with NVIDIA GoForce Handheld GPUs Bring Console-Quality 3D Gaming to Mobile Handsets and Media Players

3GSM World Congress 2006

BARCELONA, Spain--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 10, 2006--Tao Group is demonstrating their recently announced intent(R) GamePlayer platform running premium 3D game content utilising NVIDIA GoForce handheld graphics processing units (GPUs) to create a gaming experience for mobile devices not previously seen outside of the dedicated gaming console market.

The mobile games market is predicted to exceed $18 billion by 2009(1), with over 200 million active gamers(2). This will present a tremendous opportunity for game developers, operators and handset manufacturers. However the mobile gaming experience has trailed some way behind consumer expectations, which are set by the standards of the dedicated game consoles and computer platforms. With the intent(R) GamePlayer, Tao bridges this gap, bringing console level 3D gaming to mobile devices and providing a portable platform for content owners and operators to maximise the return on investment in creating and deploying premium content. It unlocks the native performance capabilities of the underlying processor architecture, independent of the resident software environment.

"We are excited to be working with NVIDIA, the leader in creating a near reality experience through graphics technology," said Ray Burgess CEO of Tao Group. "Coupling our intent(R) GamePlayer with NVIDIA GoForce handheld GPUs delivers a breakthrough consumer experience in mobile devices, combining rich 3D graphics, high resolution photos and smooth motion video."

"We are working to make native 3D acceleration available to developers so they are enabled to deliver ever more compelling mobile gaming experiences," commented Mike Rayfield, general manager for handheld GPUs at NVIDIA. "We have chosen to work with Tao as they have clearly demonstrated that intent(R) GamePlayer is standards-based platform that provides code portability together with full native 3D graphics performance."

Both NVIDIA and Tao are members of the Khronos Group, an industry consortium creating open standards for the authoring and playback of rich media on mobile handsets. Khronos recently announced the OpenKODE (Khronos Open Development Environment) initiative to create a widely available native API platform to enable portable, high-performance rich media applications. Both companies are strongly supporting OpenKODE and contributing to the effort to establish this important open industry standard. More information on OpenKODE is here: http://www.khronos.org/news/press/releases/rel51.html

NVIDIA and Tao will be demonstrating the intent GamePlayer and NVIDIA GoForce handheld GPUs running rich content from major global games publishers at 3GSM 2006 in Barcelona, 13-16 February. Discover more at the Tao Roadshow, directly outside the main halls, locations AV20-25.

References:

1. Juniper Research

2. Informa

ABOUT TAO GROUP

Tao has created intent(R) a seamlessly integrated, high-performance multimedia software platform for embedded, mobile, consumer electronics and automotive devices. An open platform intended for network operators, manufacturers and content publishers alike, intent's feature-rich multimedia capabilities facilitate the development, interaction and execution of applications in - C, C++, Java(TM), assembler and scripting languages. intent supports dynamic, downloadable content and the execution of services on the most pervasive range of digital appliances, achieving industry-leading benchmark performance through efficient coding. The Company is headquartered in Reading, England with offices in the United States and Japan.

intent is a registered trademark of Tao Group Ltd.