Nvidia has made its first foray into the CPU arena with a system-on-a-chip designed for mobile phones.

The APX 2500 is an applications processor designed to drive new 3D user interfaces and enable high-definition 720p video on connected Windows Mobile phones.

"This is the dawn of the second personal computer revolution," said Jen-Hsun Huang, president and chief executive at Nvidia.

"Technologies are converging in amazing mobile devices that have all the rich visual capabilities of a modern PC, from watching movies and making video calls to surfing the web and playing 3D games."

The new chip is being launched under the 'Ultra-Low Power GeForce' banner and consists essentially of a 750MHz ARM11 processor core combined with other technologies taken from the GeForce chipset.

Nvidia said that the chip has exceptionally low power requirements, enabling over 10 hours of high-definition video playback and up to 100 hours of audio, more than four times the audio playback of the latest touch-screen phones.

The firm is working exclusively with Microsoft on the development of APX 2500 to ensure that next-generation versions of Windows Mobile will harness the capabilities of the APX 2500 across a wide range of multimedia uses.

"Microsoft is dedicated to providing people with true mobile freedom so that they need to carry only one device for communication and entertainment," said Todd Warren, corporate vice president of Microsoft's mobile communication business.

"We are delighted to work with Nvidia to offer an amazing visual experience on the next-generation Windows Mobile phones."

Developers will be able to use OpenGL ES 2.0 and Microsoft's Direct3D Mobile APIs with the APX 2500.