NVIDIA has used CES 2013 at Las Vegas as an opportunity to unveil its
next generation mobile processor, the Tegra 4. The company claims the
processor is faster than anything in the market out there right now.
The
Tegra 4 mobile processor comes with 72 custom GPU cores, which gives it
six times the GPU horsepower of its predecessor, the Tegra 3. Also
present in the Tegra 4 is the Cortex-A15 CPU core, which NVIDIA claims
will deliver 2.6x faster web browsing, and a second-generation battery
saver core for low power during standard use.
The Tegra 4 is
designed to play nice with the optional NVIDIA Icera i500 processor,
which can add worldwide 4G LTE voice and data support capabilities to
the mobile device.
At its pre-CES launch event, NVIDIA spent a
considerable amount of time demoing Tegra 4's HDR capabilities, which
implements a technology that NVIDIA calls Computational Photography
Architecture. CPA delivers HDR photos and video by fusing together the
processing power of the GPU, CPU and the camera's image-signal
processor.
Tegra 4 also includes 4K or ultra-high-def support,
which means Tegra 4-powered devices will be able to play content that
carries four-times the quality of full-HD.
"Tegra 4 provides
enormous processing power and efficiency to power smartphones and
tablets, gaming devices, auto systems and PCs," said Phil Carmack,
senior vice president of the Tegra business at NVIDIA. "Its new
capabilities, particularly in the area of computational photography,
will help improve a whole range of existing products and lead to the
creation of exciting new ones."
NVIDIA claims that the Tegra 4 consumes up to 45 percent less power than its predecessor in "common use cases".