Nvidia, Adobe to Speed Up Flash on Netbooks, Smartphones

At the Adobe MAX 2009 developer conference, Adobe and Nvidia announced on Oct. 5 a partnership to enhance the performance of Adobe's Flash Platform on netbooks, smartphones and smartbooks built with Nvidia graphics processing units.

Under the partnership, announced on Oct. 5 at MAX, the companies have been working closely together as part of the Open Screen Project to optimize and improve performance of Flash Player 10.1 by taking advantage of GPU video and graphics acceleration on a wide range of mobile Internet devices.

Nvidia customers embracing Flash Player 10.1 for their new devices include HP, Lenovo, Samsung, Acer, Asus and more. Users are expected to be able to download a beta of Flash Player 10.1 before the end of the year, the companies said.

In addition, the combination of Nvidia GPUs and Adobe Flash Player 10.1 enables device manufacturers to deliver Web browsing of rich applications, interactive content and HD video with substantially decreased power consumption.

With the support of the Nvidia GeForce, Nvidia ION and Tegra products users will be able to enjoy a much smoother viewing experience when accessing rich content built with the Flash Platform including HD and SD video from popular sites like Hulu.com or YouTube, Nvidia officials said.

“Consumers want the best Internet experience – whether it’s a mobile device in their pocket or a netbook at the coffee shop,” said Dan Vivoli, senior vice president of Nvidia, in a statement. “Our engineers have worked closely with Adobe to make this a reality.”

“The most innovative and expressive Websites use Adobe Flash technology,” said David Wadhwani, general manager and vice president of the Platform Business Unit at Adobe. “By working together to further leverage the power of graphics processors, Adobe and Nvidia are able to provide breakthrough Web experiences on a wide range of devices. This new development brings us a step closer to putting the power of a PC in your pocket.”

Nvidia ION-based netbooks and nettops like the HP Mini 311, Lenovo IdeaPad S12, Samsung N510, Acer AspireRevo, and Asus eeeBox EB1012 and others are shipping today and once Flash Player 10.1 is available, they can take advantage of GPU-accelerated video decoding to deliver Flash-based video, Nvidia officials said.

“HP is pleased to work with Nvidia and Adobe to give customers a compelling high-definition video experience,” said Kevin Frost, vice president and general manager of consumer notebooks in HP's Personal Systems Group. “The recently introduced HP Mini 311 supports stunning HD video using Flash Player 10.1.”