NVIDIA introduced the Tegra 3 quad-core processor for mobile devices and tablets offering energy efficiency and faster performance. The Tegra 3 processor provides up to 3x the graphics performance of Tegra 2, and up to 61 percent lower power consumption. This translates into an industry-leading 12 hours of battery life for HD video playback.
The Tegra 3 processor implements a new, patent-pending technology known as Variable Symmetric Multiprocessing (vSMP). vSMP includes a fifth CPU "companion," specifically designed for work requiring little power. The four main cores are specifically designed for work requiring high performance, and generally consume less power than dual-core processors.
During tasks that require less power consumption — like listening to music, playing back video or updating background data — the Tegra 3 processor completely shuts down its four performance-tuned cores and, instead, uses its companion core. For high-performance tasks — like web browsing, multitasking and gaming — the Tegra 3 processor disables the companion.
"NVIDIA's fifth core is ingenious," said Nathan Brookwood, Research Fellow at Insight 64. "Tegra 3's vSMP technology extends the battery life of next-generation mobile devices by using less power when they're handling undemanding tasks and then ratcheting up performance when it's really needed."
The Tegra 3 quad-core CPUs are complemented with a new 12-core NVIDIA GeForce GPU, which delivers more realism with dynamic lighting, physical effects and high resolution environments, plus support for 3D stereo, giving developers the means to bring the next generation of mobile games to life.
For the millions who play games on mobile devices, the Tegra 3 processor provides an experience comparable to that of a game console. It offers full game-controller support, enabling consumers to play games on their tablet or super phone, or connect to big screen HDTVs for a truly immersive experience. It also leverages NVIDIA's award-winning 3D Vision technology and automatically converts OpenGL applications to stereo 3D, so consumers can experience 3D on a big screen 3D TV (via HDMI 1.4 technology).
Features
- World's first quad-core ARM Cortex A9 CPU
- New patent-pending vSMP technology, including a fifth CPU core that runs at a lower frequency and operates at exceptionally low power
- 12-core GeForce GPU, with 3x the graphics performance of the Tegra 2 processor, including support for stereoscopic 3D
- Accelerated Adobe Flash Player 11, HTML5 and WebGL browsing, and an optimized Javascript engine
- New video engines with support for 1080p high profile video at 40 Mbps
- Up to 3x higher memory bandwidth
- Up to 2x faster Image Signal Processor
40 games are expected to be available by the end of 2011, and over 15 Tegra 3 games are under development for Tegra Zone, NVIDIA's free Android Market app that showcases the best games optimized for the Tegra processor.
The Tegra 3 processor is in production. Developers can order the Tegra 3 Developer Kit to create applications for devices with Tegra such as tablets and super phones, at developer.nvidia.com/tegra.
The first tablet to debut the NVIDIA Tegra 3 processor is the ASUS Eee Pad Transformer Prime.
See more about: Newest Tablets, Newest Smartphones, NVIDIA News & Reviews
