NVIDIA announced its Developer Program for hardware accelerated 3D applications on mobile phones and other handheld devices, and the immediate availability of the handheld software development kit (SDK). NVIDIA promissed to work closely with game developers and middleware providers to drive the proliferation of 3D content onto the cell phone platform.

"Cell phone users are becoming increasingly sophisticated in how they use their phones. Carriers looking for innovative ways to offer their customers new services are already integrating features such as camera phones and video phones," said Mark Daly, vice president of content development at NVIDIA. "The obvious next step in this genesis is to bring the type of compelling 3D content that already exists on other platforms to the handheld market."

The NVIDIA handheld SDK is designed to allow established game developers access to NVIDIA technology, familiarizing themselves with the architecture in order to take advantage of all the unique features of NVIDIA media processors, and to be able to bid for and secure development projects for NVIDIA-based mobile phones.

NVIDIA's handheld SDK will include a library of code samples including but not limited to basic rendering, multitexture and atmospheric effects. It also includes a custom framework for handheld development in Microsoft Visual Studio .NET.

Developers who join NVIDIA's handheld developer program will also have access to a variety of NVIDIA libraries including the Company's OpenGL ES driver library, fixed point math library and the NVIDIA DXT texture loading library. Participants will also receive the source code for NVIDIA's current handheld demos and have access to NVIDIA technical suppor