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  • Nvidia’s New Tegra 4 Mobile Chip
Technology Articles > Hardware > Processors > Nvidia’s New Tegra 4 Mobile Chip

If there’s one thing that Nvidia is known for it’s chips. Nvidia is the maker behind a number of mobile processors, and now the company has devised the next generation of these processors. The Nvidia Tegra 4 chip will be hitting mobile phones near you very soon. What makes this chip so special? Other than the fact that it was developed by Nvidia, the Tegra 4 chip seems to have a lot going for it – most of all, an unparalleled speed factor.

Inside the Nvidia Tegra 4 Mobile Chip

Nvidia has told press that the Tegra 4 has six times the processing power of the older Nvidia Tegra 3. To put that number comparatively, the Tegra 4 is faster than the chip that currently resides inside the iPad 4. Seemingly, all of that speed would eat up energy, but that’s not the case. Nvidia has designed this chip so similar to the Tegra 3 (same architecture) that the Tegra 4 chip is actually energy efficient – comparable to the Tegra 3.

The Tegra 4 has an ARM Cortex-A15 CPU and comes with 72 GeForce (Nvidia) graphics cores. Google’s Nexus 7 tablet currently includes a Tegra 3 chip, but Nvidia isn’t going to drop the Tegra 4 into any outside products off the bat. Instead, Nvidia has decided to develop its own Android gaming controller that the company is currently calling Project Shield. After testing out this controller, it’s safe to assume that Nvidia’s Tegra 4 will be popping up in other devices.

Availability and Other Bits of News

Since Nvidia is testing out its own product before placing the Tegra 4 into any other device, it could be a few months before the Tegra 4 chip is included in any mobile device. Nvidia announced the Tegra 4 chip at the currently happening CES conference, and drew a good deal of attention. Since Nvidia is well known for fast and energy efficient chips, the Tegra 4 is expected to be something of a marvel. Even though it might be awhile before you can get your hands on a Tegra 4 device, Nvidia’s reputation definitely precedes this week’s announcement.

Nvidia’s CEO demonstrated the Tegra 4 chip at the CES conference by shooting pictures in HDR (High Dynamic Range) -- the photos that were snapped were so fast, they were almost in real-time. (without significant delay). Nvidia’s Tegra 4 chip will be one of the fastest on the market (if not the fastest) when it does arrive in mobile devices.

Thanks to excellent energy consumption, devices that will include the Tegra 4 will be able to offer consumers up to 14-hours of video playback (when shot using a smartphone). There’s no doubt that Nvidia’s new chip will largely revolutionize the way that smartphones work, starting with speed. Nvidia is expected to make additional announcements in regards to the Tegra 4 chip within the next few months. If you’re into speed, love what Nvidia does, and want to know what the future of processors looks like, stay tuned for more details -- coming soon to this site!