An Nvidia executive on Wednesday said smartphones with the company's low-power Tegra 2 chips will become available in the fourth quarter this year.

Nvidia launched its next-generation Tegra processor for low-cost laptops and tablets on Thursday, which could intensify competition with rival Intel in the chip market.

Nvidia Inc., the PC graphics chipmaker that is trying to break into the portable computing electronics market, needs the upcoming Zune HD media player to be successful as much as the player's maker, Microsoft Corp.

After close to a year of talk and demonstrations, Nvidia's low-power Tegra chips will soon appear in mobile devices, a company official said on Thursday.

Microsoft's upcoming Zune HD media player is powered by Nvidia's Tegra computing platform, a source familiar with the device's specifications confirmed on Friday.

Laptops and handheld computers based on Nvidia's Tegra computing platform will hit the market before the end of this year, the company said Tuesday.

The first computers based on Nvidia's Tegra platform have yet to hit the market, but that company is already talking up its successor, Tegra II.