Nvidia Tegra 3 Low-cost quad-core Tegra 3 handsets coming this year

If you’re in love with the recently announced Google Nexus 7 for the fact that it packs a top of the line processor in a very, very affordable package – good news. There’s more where that came from. A lot more, in fact.

Nvidia is expanding its Kai platform into smartphone territory. Kai is Nvidia’s low-cost refocusing of the Tegra 3 quad-core chipset. It’s basically a cheaper Tegra 3 that’s been made compatible with cheaper additional hardware components (such as memory and displays). That enables $199 tablets, like we’ve seen with the Nexus 7, without giving up on the 4-PLUS-1 CPU architecture and ’12-core graphics’ that Nvidia likes so much to brag about.

Kai will be in smartphones by the end of this year. That means that we should get ready for some pretty amazingly-priced quad-core devices in the coming months. The first partners for this endeavor are apparently a number of Chinese phone makers. That’s all the information we have for now, but do note that this wording doesn’t necessarily mean that these first low-cost handsets will be confined to the Chinese market. After all, Huawei and ZTE are also ‘Chinese phone makers’ and they’re selling their products globally.

ZTE has shown a quad-core smartphone having the Tegra 3 processor built-in at MWC in February, yet that’s not been launched yet. Perhaps it will be slightly retooled and arrive on the (international) market with this Kai platform inside. That could mean it may beat all its competitors in pricing. And that’s the good thing about Kai – it has the potential to enable another wave of competition (based on lowering prices) in the mobile world. Which is always good for consumers.

Depending on how low-cost Kai will be for smartphones, Nvidia may be starting to compete heavily at the lower end of the market with the likes of Qualcomm, ST, and perhaps even with MediaTek’s most expensive chips. This shows that Nvidia is very confident about its efforts in the mobile market, and at least so far it’s probably got all the reasons to be.

Source: unwiredview.com

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Wikipad World's First Gaming Tablet Using Nvidia Tegra 3 Quad Core Chip

Wednesday during E3 2012, Wikipad said it has selected Nvidia's Tegra 3 quad-core SoC as the brains behind the world's first gaming tablet.

The portable gaming gadget is currently on display at select Nvidia and Gaikai locations at the Los Angeles Convention Center. It features Android 4.0 "Ice Cream Sandwich," a 10.1-inch screen, a thickness of 8.6-mm, a gamepad-like attachment, and the preloaded Nvidia TegraZone which offers games optimized for Tegra and game controller support.

"By adding Nvidia’s Tegra 3 processor to the Wikipad, we’ve combined the best of tablet and console gaming into one device that fits in the palms of your hands," said Fraser Townley, President of Sales for Wikipad. "Tegra 3 opens up incredible content options including optimized mobile games and console-quality streaming games through new cloud gaming services."

The Wikipad tablet first made its appearance back in January during CES 2012. Still in a prototype stage, it was touted as the first glasses-free 3D Android 4.0-based tablet with an attachable video game controller. Analog sticks resided on each side, and a D-pad was mounted on the left and four action buttons seated to the right. A set of speakers were embedded into the controller at the bottom and shoulder triggers at the top.

Then last month Gaikai announced that it teamed up with Wikipad to help produce the upcoming tablet. Gaikai will provide a client that will be integrated into the tablet's OS, streaming console-quality titles right to the user's fingertips. Details regarding the client are slim for the moment, but it's assumed that users will be able to purchase individual games from a Wikipad storefront -- whether these games can be played on other devices is unknown.

The tablet is supposedly capable of glasses-free 3D and 1080p playback including H.264, VC1, VOB, ISO, M2TS, and FLV. Other features include HDMI and USB 2.0 ports, front and rear cameras, 8 GB of on-board storage and an SD card slot for an additional 64 GB of space. Wi-Fi will be the connection of choice although a USB 2.0 port indicates that an optional 3G module may be available.

The Wikipad launch date is set for the end of the 3rd Quarter, 2012 through major retailers worldwide. Will this tablet be successful and take gamers by storm, or become another Xperia PLAY?

Source: Tomshardware

Tags: Tablet, Gaming Table, Nvdia, Nvida Tegra 3, Wikipad

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Nvidia: Smartphone graphics to best Xbox 360 by 2014

On Thursday Nvidia released a slide showing the progression of GPU performance in the console, PC and mobile sectors from 2001 to 2014. As Nvidia showed us last year, consoles have created a "Z" on the chart, jumping up one level after releasing a new version with better hardware, but flatlining for numerous years thereafter. They can outperform the PC on a graphic level thanks to an integrated design, but that victory is only brief to say the least as PC hardware performance steadily climbs.

What's shocking is the steep increase in GPU performance in the mobile sector. According to Nvidia's chart, devices began to show a real increase between 2008 and 2009, but the steepest climb thus far has been from 2010 until now. What's interesting is that Nvidia's chart shows the mobile GPU to be cranking out better graphics than the current Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 consoles starting 2013. That says a lot given that smartphones weren't even considered as competition until Apple released the iPhone in 2007.

To some degree, smartphones are in a "golden era," mirroring a similar era experienced in the 1990s when GPUs began to infiltrate the PC sector. Developers like id Software and Epic Games were always pushing the envelope, squeezing out every ounce of performance the current hardware could provide while also pushing hardware manufacturers to implement features into the next generation. We're seeing that again in the mobile sector, and it's downright fascinating to watch this technology mature so quickly.

On a visual level, the progression has been phenomenal. We've moved from monochrome Tetris-like games to console-quality titles like Modern Combat 3 in a span of a few years. The rise in visual performance wasn't quite so dramatic in the PC sector, moving from the likes of Wolfenstein 3D in 1992 (PC, Mac) to Return to Castle Wolfenstein in 2001 (PC, Mac, Xbox, PS2).

Naturally Nvidia's chart will change once Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo release their next-generation products. Reports indicate that the Wii U will likely reside with the current crop on a GPU level while the other two take another stab at pushing past PC-based GPU performance. Yet based on the sharp rise in the mobile sector, it looks highly likely that the console and mobile sectors will eventually merge. Today's top mobile chips are already on the same playing field as the Nintendo 3DS and Sony PlayStation Vita, if not better.

Source:Tomshardware

Tags: Nvdia, Nvida Tegra 3, Processor, Smartphone

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