For NVIDIA and Intel, Flash video is a double-edged sword

December 24th, 2009

One of my favorite Intel foibles to ridicule is the way that the company continues to stress Flash support as a rationale for x86 in handheld portables—x86, we’re told repeatedly, gives you “the full Internet experience,” by which Intel means, “you can run Flash on it.” This is supposed to make x86 a better option than ARM for portable CPUs, but the chipmaker doesn’t bother to mention that ARM Flash support is here as of Flash 10.1, making their favorite talking point inoperative.

With the arrival of Flash 10.1, ARM-based SoCs from vendors like NVIDIA can now offer “the full Internet experience,” so the company’s Tegra line competes with x86-based SoCs for Web-enabled design wins on pure price/performance/watt. But the Open Screen Project doesn’t just hurt Intel PR; it’s turning out to be a headache for NVIDIA PR, as well.