Nvidia Tegra X1 is as powerful as the most poweruful supercomputer of 2000

We all know technology has evolved by leaps and bounds in the past decades, but it never ceases to amaze me to actually see what we've accomplished. Something like shrinking down the most powerful supercomputer of 15 years ago, to the point where it can fit in a mobile device, like Nvidia did Tegra with its new Tegra X.

Tegra K1 puts a Xbox 360 and a PS3 in your pocket

Just the other day some friends and I were talking about how much longer we would have to wait to have Xbox 360/PS3 quality games and graphics on a mobile device. And little did we know that Nvidia was about to answer that question far sooner than we anticipated. The new Tegra K1 has 192 CUDA cores and takes the same Kepler architecture we find in their desktop GPUs to the mobile world.

The performance improvements are quite significant:

The K1 is not only more powerful than a Xbox 360 and a PS3... it's almost as powerful as both of them combined! (And it offers additional benefits, such as DX11 and OpenGL 4.4 support.)

Even more impressive, it can do this while using just 5W - compared to the 100W used by each of these game consoles. Nvidia has also scored a nice partner, showing Unreal Engine 4 running on the K1 as well as some games, like Trine and Serious Sam 3.

Though there's still room for improvement (as always), it's incredible that we will have access to this kind of graphic power in mobile devices this year. And best of all, in the second half of the year a new K1 version will pop up, with a dual core 64 bits "Denver" CPU (the current version uses a 32bit quad-core "plus 1" CPU).

... So... how long will we have to wait till the same thing happens to the newer PS4 and Xbox One? Four years? Less? What's your take on that?

Tegra 6 to be 100x Faster than Tegra 2

The CPUs and GPUs used in mobile devices have been evolving at an incredible rate. Suffice to say, the new Galaxy S4 is twice as fast as the previous S3, and to really put things into perspective Nvidia has reveled its roadmap, and announcing a 100x performance improvement when it "Parker" (Tegra 6) comes out in 2015.

Yes, Nvidia keeps using super-hero code names for their Tegra models: Tegra 3 was known as "Kal-El" (Superman), Tegra 4 as "Wayne" (Batman), and the upcoming Tegras are "Logan" (Wolverine) arriving later this year and "Parker" (Spider man) in 2015. This means in 2015 we'll have mobile devices with 100x more power than the ones we had in 2011 - it's simply... incredible!

But even before that, the upcoming "Logan" should already be quite impressive, as it will add a Kepler GPU to the mix (Kepler is the existing GPU technology you can find on "big computer" graphics' cards with Nvidia GPUs).

And talking about GPUs, those will also keep up doubling performance every two years. Next year the Maxwell architecture will replace the current Kepler, with an unified virtual memory that will simplify developers' lives by allowing both the CPU and GPU to access any memory content without having to worry if it's on the CPU side or the GPU side. And later on... the Volta GPUs, that will feature a stacked memory design that will finally take care of the "starving" memory bandwidth of current GPU architectures. Nvidia says it will have enough bandwidth to go through an entire bluray movie in a fraction of a second.

Can't wait to see all that power put into good use!

[via cnet]

Tegra 4 Shows what it's Worth

Nvidia has been a strong contender in the mobile market since the beginning of the recent smartphone/tablet revolution, with its Tegra chipsets becoming widely known and famed. Over the years, they've become better and better, and you wouldn't expect things to change with the new version that will set a new standard for 2013. Tegra 4 benchmarks are popping up and show a vast improvement over the previous Tegra 3 generation:

Unlike what you get on the desktops, where each new CPU generation might get you a bit faster CPU and/or slightly better power efficiency, in the mobile segment you can still get differences of over 3x the performance over the last generation. And yes, they're able to do it while still improving the power efficiency as well. For instance, while playing FullHD video, Tegra 4 uses just 0.95W, compared to the 1.2W of the Tegra 3. A difference that will help your smartphone/tablet last longer while playing video.

Now we just have to put this new beast face to face with the upcoming octa-core Exynos Samsung will use in their new Galaxy S4 (that will be presented on March 14th.)

Asus Transformer Prime - Tegra 3 Quad-Core Beast

Asus finally revealed the secret behind the new and improved Transformer Android Tablet... If you thought the first Transformer was great, just wait until you see the new Transformer Prime, the first Tegra 3 quad-core tablet.

But Asus also knows that specs alone are not enough to make customers fall in love for their devices, and if looks are what you're looking for, you won't be disappointed by the Transformer Prime. Available in amethyst gray and champagne gold, this tablet is one of the sexier ever built - and I do mean "ever".

It's thickness is just 8.3mm, and it weighs just 586g - yep, slimmer and lighter than the iPad 2.

But, looks don't mean much if there's nothing inside, and this Transformer Prime really packs a mean punch when you look at what it has to offeri:

• LCD Super IPS+ 10.1" (1280x800) LCD - wider viewing angles, visible outdoors, improved brightness
• 8MP camera - FullHD 1080p, continuous LED Flash, enhanced auto-focus, F2.4 lens
• Super fast Touchscreen response time: 50ms
• Extended battery life: 12h (18h with dock)
• Improved sound - Larger speakers, improved fidelity
• oleophobic  anti-fingerprints/smudges - on screen and metallic casing
• Nvidia Tegra 3 quad-core - FullHD video, improved 3D graphics, over 2x the processing power of the previous Tegra 2 models
  

The Prime will be available in 32 and 64GB models, and will exist alongside the current Transformer model: 

• Asus Eee Pad Transformer: $399 and $449 (16 or 32GB)
• Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime: $499 and $599 (32 or 64GB)
• Dock/keyboard: $149 for both models

Asus said the latest Android Ice Cream Sandwhich will be available for the Transformer Prime in December (and that the current Transformer will also get it as well).

We were also shown a new SuperNote App, that allows text and drawing input; as well as the Polaris Office, each allows users to edit and create MS Office files, turning the Prime into a powerful "office" machine.

Now I just have to wait until Asus sends me a review unit and I can actually put my hands on one of these beauties. For now, I'll have to do with a regular "old" Transformer that Asus was kind enough to lend me to assist on my official coverage of the biggest tech event in Portugal: Sapo Codebits. And now that I mention it... I'll only have a couple hours of sleep before traveling to the event for the pre-launch preparations... Oh well... I do love it anyway. :)

Nvidia Kal-El shows Tegra's Future

We all "mobile" is all the rage right now, and Nvidia just poured high-octane fuel into the fire! Nvidia's next-gen super-chip (aptly named Kal-El) shows us what the Tegra line has to offer. Nvidia's project Kal El puts mobile chips up there, right next (and above) common desktop CPUs.

We're talking a quad-core chip next to a brand new 12 core Nvidia GPU, allowing screens up to  2560x1600(!) and five times more powerful than current Tegra 2 implementations.

Arriving this Summer, this Kal-el can even surpass a Core 2 (T7200) Intel CPU, as you can see in the following benchmark.


Care to see how this translates into... browsing?



But, want to know what's even better? There are new super-heros coming from Nvidia with each new year (Wayne, Logan, Stark) each one doubling its predecessor performance. Meaning... by 2014, we'll be using devices almost 100x more powerful than our current Tegra 2 devices.

Can you sincerely imagine what that will allow us to do/imagine?

P.S. Engadget has some videos showing Kal-El running Great Battles Medieval at 720p with 650 solders on screen, compared to a regular Tegra 2:

Nvidia Tegra 2 Android Tablet

Nvidia keeps teasing us with tablet prototypes. This time they've shown a Tegra 2 Android Tablet with a dua core Cortex A9 CPU (newer generation than the one Apple's A4 was based on) and 1GB Ram (iPad has only 256MB.) You also get a front facing camera and USB ports.

Nothing was said about battery life, price... and most important of all... when it will be availble.

Nvidia Tegra

It looks like Nvidia Tegra is getting ready to take the market by storm, and with Android to boot, it opens up an interesting range of mobile devices.

Remember that this new chipset can easily play 1080p HD video, and keep doing it for 10h in a single charge! That's nothing but amazing and unheard of to this day.



You can see some more videos of Nvidia's Tegra here.