Mobes with monster 72-core GPU to debut in China
ZTE says handsets packing Tegra 4 system-on-chip will land before July
Nvidia’s supercharged quad-core Tegra 4 SoC, which packs a mighty 72 GPU cores, has finally found a mobile home after handset maker ZTE announced new smartphones featuring the chip will debut in China in the first half of 2013.
The Tegra 4 was unveiled last month at CES but has so far been left to stand at the altar by the smartphone makers, like the intimidatingly powerful bride it is.
That’s set to change now and could bring smartphone users significant leaps in graphics capability courtesy of those 72 custom GeForce cores. This will obviously make for smoother, more realistic gaming on the mobile but also, as The Reg pointed out at CES, improved photos with High Dynamic Range (HDR) imaging support.
The quad-core ARM Cortex-A15 CPU is not a huge performance leap up from Tegra 3 by comparison but the SoC apparently manages to consume 45 per cent less power than its predecessor, thanks in part to a “second-generation battery-saver core”.
As per Tegra 3, this extra (fifth) CPU core runs the phone during normal operation, allowing the A15s to take over when some serious processing power is needed.
Improved web browsing and app download times are also promised by Nvidia.
There’s no detail yet on which handset models will sport the new chips, although one of them will be an LTE version featuring Nvidia’s i500 chipset, ZTE said. That chipset has been crammed inside a new smaller SoC, the 4i, which was announced on Tuesday.
Nvidia explains its performance efficiency benefits and why the i500 is likely to be around for a while to come, in a blog post here.
Sadly ZTE was unable to confirm if or when the upcoming Tegra 4 handsets would make it out of the People’s Republic.
Nvidia isn’t the only chip firm looking to set its stall out ahead of MWC next week, however. STEricsson announced on Wednesday what it claims to be the world’s fastest smartphone processor – the gargantuan 3Ghz NovaThor L8580.
The 28nm, Cortex-A9 chip is being touted by ST as a disruptor in the wireless space, although it remains a prototype so won’t be in devices for some time yet. ®
COMMENTS
Re: Sadly 72 nVidia GPU cores
>If anyone is interested in comparing performance the Nexus 10 tablet contains the Tegra 4
Not a Exynos 5 Dual + Mali-T604 then?
Could it be you have no idea of what you speak?
Re: Sadly 72 nVidia GPU cores
In other words Mr Todd, you open your mouth before reading facts.
Tegra 4i
I'm looking forward to the Tegra 4i, (which is more related to the Tegra 3 than the Tegra 4; The Tegra 4i has similar QuadCore plus the lite CPU to the Tegra 4, but they're ~2GHz Cortex A9 cores; the 4i manages to lose 12 graphic cores - down to just 60...... something else needs that tiny space on the silicon)
So why do I look forward to the 4i?, well it's explained as featuring an British designed Icera software defined radio as part of the SoC single chip package.
SDR History: Icera made a '450 Espresso' HSPA+ modem in 2011 thruput-28MBPS, an Icera 410 LTE Modem thruput-50MBPS (which gained AT&T LTE certification) in 2012, now this upcoming QuadCore Tegra 4i SDR will debut at 100MBPS and will be upgradeable to around 150MBPS LTE/4G.
The Tegra 4i is is expected to power mid-range Android smartphones manufactured in 2014
New megahertz wars
Number of cores parameter replaces the old megahertz parameter.
The IT world benefits from fun parameters like these to stimulate Moores Law like progress.
Re: HDR?
I think that was the point. Consumer "HDR" typically involves taking a rapid sequence of images at different exposures then crudely stacking them into one weird-looking ugly haloed JPEG for the consumer to shove onto FB or Flkr and wow their friends. The crude automated stacking step takes a bit of grunt.
