Feb 24
This morning we’re to understand that NVIDIA has paired up with their first partner for the NVIDIA Tegra 4i smartphone chip for the first time. The group that’ll be rolling … Continue reading
May 21
At CTIA 2013, NVIDIA is demonstrating its 4G LTE modem capability of the Tegra 4i processor with integrated modem and the i500 stand-alone modem. You may recall that NVIDIA did a similar demonstration at Mobile World Congress when they showed […]
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May 21
Earlier this year NVIDIA announced their all-new quad-core Tegra 4 mobile processor, then followed that up with the Tegra 4i with integrated 4G LTE thanks to their Icera i500 LTE modem. And now today in Las Vegas for CTIA they’re showing its potential by doing a live demo testing Cat 4 LTE-Advanced pulling 150 Mbps
Apr 22
The NVIDIA team worked long and hard to ensure that the NVIDIA Tegra 4i would be ready to show off by the time Mobile World Congress came around. The team worked non-stop from February 3rd (the day of Super Bowl) to February 25th, the first day of MWC. The entire 22-day process was exhausting, but the NVIDIA team pulled through and was able to bring their next-gen mobile processor into the world.
The NVIDIA Tegra 4i is NVIDIA’s first mobile processor with an integrated modem. The modem would allow NVIDIA to bring next-gen wireless networking into the smartphone market. Over 200 engineers got straight to work once their package of new silicon chips arrived at SFO from Taiwan. These engineers sacrificed their social lives and sleep in order to develop their next-gen product.
The engineers came from all parts of the world. They worked diligently on testing out new features, stressing each component, working on the upfront designs of each part, and transforming this all into a working product. NVIDIA dubbed this process, “bringup”. They spent nearly 24 hours a day working on the chip, and saw all their hard work come to life when the chip booted into Android and successfully sent a message to NVIDIA’s CEO.
After successfully testing out the chip, NVIDIA’s system engineering team worked on developing several Phoenix model phones to show off the chip’s capabilities. By the time MWC rolled around, NVIDIA was able to show off the Phoenix model phone that was more than just a phone showing off a display loop. It was instead a full-featured phone that could be used and tested by the public. Be sure to check out our detailed review of the NVIDIA Tegra 4i to see what the NVIDIA team was able to develop. Also be sure to check out our Tegra Hub for the latest information in Tegra news.
[via NVIDIA]
NVIDIA details 22-day process of developing the Tegra 4i is written by Brian Sin & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Mar 22
This past week we’ve had the opportunity to have a peek at one of the many new features involved in the NVIDIA Tegra 4 processor technology family: Chimera computational photography. The NVIDIA Tegra 4 (and Tegra 4i) SoC works with what they’re calling the “world’s first mobile computational photography architecture”, and today what you’ll be seeing is one of the several features NVIDIA will be delivering to smartphones that utilize their processor. This first demonstration involves “Always-on HDR” photography.
What you’re seeing here is a demonstration done by NVIDIA at the official GTC 2013 conference. That the GPU Technology Conference, a multi-day event we attended with bells on – have a peek at our GTC 2013 tag portal now for everything we got to see – with more coming up in the future! The demonstration shown here is of a technology originally revealed earlier this year at NVIDIA’s keynote presentation at CES 2013 – head back to the original reveal post to see a whole different angle!
Here a high dynamic range scene has been arranged behind a device running the Chimera photography experience with an NVIDIA Tegra 4 (or perhaps 4i) processor inside. While a traditional HDR-capable camera takes two images one-after-another at different exposures and fuses them together, NVIDIA’s Always-on HDR feature works to take away the two negative bits involved with traditional HDR by allowing the following:
• Live preview through your camera’s display (on your smartphone, tablet, etc).
• The ability to capture moving objects.
With traditional HDR, if you’ve got someone running through the scene, you’ll get even more of a blur than you’d normally get because you’re effectively taking two photos. With NVIDIA’s method you’re capturing your image 10 times faster than you’d be capturing it without a Tegra 4 working to help. Because of this, when you’ve got a Tegra 4 processor in your smartphone, you’ll be able to use a flash in your HDR photos, use burst mode to capture several HDR shots in quick succession, and you’ll be able to capture HDR video, too!
We’re very much looking forward to rolling out with the Tegra 4 on smart devices soon – until then, we can only dream of the colors! Check out the full NVIDIA mobile experience in our fabulous Tegra hub right this minute!
NVIDIA Tegra 4 Chimera camera technology hands-on is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Feb 19
The Daily Roundup for 02.19.2013
Posted in: Today's Chili 
You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours — all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
HTC One unveiled
HTC One: 4.7-inch 1080p display, 1.7GHz quad-core Snapdragon 600, UltraPixel camera, Android 4.1.2 with Sense 5.
HTC One hands-on: design and hardware
The HTC One made quite an entrance in London and New York today with a slick-looking design and re-imagined Android user experience.
Ubuntu for tablets revealed with split screen multi-tasking
Here it is: the fourth and final piece of the Ubuntu puzzle. We’ve seen the OS on smartphones, on TVs and of course on desktops, but the tablet version has spent a little longer in its dressing room.
Rumors claim Google will launch its own retail stores
On Friday, a report surfaced on 9to5Google that Google was making serious plans to open permanent retail locations, and it’s been followed up today by the Wall Street Journal indicating the same thing.
You also might like:
- Outlook.com exits preview with 60 million active users, Hotmail UI to be retired this summer
- Reuters: Apple employee computers hacked, no evidence of stolen data
- NVIDIA intros Tegra 4i with built-in LTE, details Chimera camera tech with HDR
- NVIDIA unveils the GTX Titan, an enormous graphics card that costs $1,000 (eyes-on)
Feb 19
Nvidia Debuts Tegra 4i With Integrated LTE, Brings Tegra 4 Mass-Market With Phoenix Reference Design
Posted in: Today's Chili
Nvidia today announced its latest Tegra 4 processor, the Tegra 4i, which ships with an integrated LTE modem, which also offers the highest performance rating of any single-chip mobile processor according to the company and weighs in at half the size of the competing Snapdragon 800. Why does that matter? Because it brings Tegra 4 performance to a whole range of new, mid-market devices, whereas before it was pretty much exclusively available for top-end super phones.
The Tegra 4i boasts 60 custom Nvidia GPU cores, a quad-caore CPU based on ARM reference designs and a fifth, battery saving core in addition to the Nvidia i500 LTE modem. That makes for a small, energy-efficient processor with a 2.3GHz CPU that offers five times the GPU cores of the Tegra 3. The integrated LTE modem is also software-defined, which means that it can be reprogrammed over-the-air to handle different frequencies for different networks. The Tegra 4i also offers camera tech that allows it to do always-on HDR photography, as well as panoramic photos with HDR, too.
In addition to the Tegra 4i, Nvidia is also announcing a reference smartphone design called the Phoenix, which acts as a blueprint for smartphone OEMs to use freely in creating their own shipping handsets to bring to market more quickly. the development of the Tegra 4i and the i500 LTE modem are the result of Nvidia’s acquisition of Icera last year.
This is a major development for Nvidia, because it means they can finally compete on equal footing with the chips with integrated modems being offered by resident big dog on the mobile processor block Qualcomm, with power consumption that should hopefully help the company finally address complaints of low battery life, which have plagued its previous Tegra designs.
These processors will be on the show floor at MWC this month, so hopefully we’ll get to see them in action powering actual devices by then, at which point we’ll be better able to determine whether the Tegra 4i does indeed provide Nvidia the means to truly shake up the Qualcomm-dominated mobile processor industry.
Feb 19
Just over a month after announcing the Tegra 4 processor, Nvidia’s back with another mobile chipset, the Tegra T4i, which comes with an integrated LTE modem. It’s designed specifically for use with smartphones. Where the Tegra 4 is all about raw power for big phones and tablets, the Tegra 4i is a marvel of tiny efficient design. More »
Feb 19
This week the folks at NVIDIA have revealed not just the Tegra 4i mobile processor, but the Phoenix Reference Phone that’ll carry it. With Phoenix, NVIDIA will once again be delivering their own bit of user-ready hardware top to bottom, but unlike Project SHIELD, this device is meant to be used by prospective hardware manufacturers and developers wishing to optimize their games for the processing environment. That said, this device brings on some of the most fabulous high-end specifications yet available to the market – starting with a 5-inch 1080p display.
With the Phoenix reference platform you’ll get an 8mm thin smartphone with 4G LTE connectivity as well as all the rest of the next-generation features the Tegra 4i offers. With the Tegra 4i you’ve got the NVIDIA i500 software-defined radio modem which gives you the 4G LTE you crave – this time integrated on the chip rather than separate. On the Tegra 4 you’ll also find compatibility with the i500, but in that case it’s optional and the end result is a significant amount larger physically.
As the Phoenix works with all of the greatest features the Tegra 4i offers, you’ll also find PRISM 2, DirectTouch, and Chimera – what NVIDIA notes is the world’s first mobile computational photography architecture. PRISM is a technology developed by NIVIDA back with the Tegra 3, improved here with the Tegra 4 family with PRISM 2 for more Pixel Rendering Intensity and Saturation Management than ever before, allowing the Phoenix to reduce backlight power at the same time as it enhances pixel color – the result being longer battery life than you’d otherwise get with the same “visual quality”, as they say.
With DirectTouch you’re getting touch responsiveness that’s made much less reliant on battery power as its offloaded to the Tegra 4i processor. This innovative technology was also introduced with the Tegra 3 – the last big boost here, on the other hand, is all new. With the NVIDIA Tegra 4 and Tegra 4i, and live in effect with the Phoenix, you’ll find NVIDIA’a own Chimera Computational Photography Architecture.
With Chimera you’ve got several new innovations made possible by the many graphic processing cores the Tegra 4i (or the Tegra 4) has available. With the Phoenix phone you’ll be able to use each of the three new abilities revealed thus far by NVIDIA: Persistent Tap-to-Track, HDR Panorama, and Always-On HDR. With the Tegra 4i’s Always-On HDR this phone’s camera always captures multiple exposures instantly, allowing you to see a final product that’s near-real vivid “similar to how the human eye sees the world” as NVIDIA says.
With HDR panoramic photos on the Phoenix you’ll be getting that same amazing instant-HDR processing you get with regular photos, but here in many different long modes. You can capture long photos side-to-side, up-and-down, or diagonally. Finally there’s tap-to-track technology here that allows you to attach a virtual sensor to whatever object you like – human or not – the camera continuing to keep focus as well as exposure levels based on that object.
Can’t wait to check it all out? Have a peek at our NVIDIA Tegra hub to follow SlashGear right up until and through the point at which we get our own hands-on opportunities with this reference platform in the future. It’ll be then that we’ll also find out how you will be able to get your hands on this device as well – good luck on that!
NVIDIA Phoenix Reference Phone detailed as Tegra 4i delivery vehicle is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Feb 19
With NVIDIA‘s reveal of the Tegra 4 System-on-Chip we saw the next generation of processing power with the ability to work with a separate piece of architecture for 4G LTE connectivity – with the Tegra 4i, NVIDIA integrates it all onto one single-chip solution. What you’ll see here is a smaller footprint made for smartphones on the mass market with a whole lot of next-generation power, but on such a level as you’ll find on the Tegra 4. Tegra 4i is NVIDIA’s way of pushing the latest and greatest in Tegra processing power to smartphones in a big way.
Tegra 4i vs Tegra 4
While the Tegra 4i (codename: “Grey” up until this week) is handling massive amounts of smartphones across the market across the world, NVIDIA’s Tegra 4 (originally called codename: “Wayne”) will be handling Tablets and what NVIDIA calls Superphones. This is a term NVIDIA has been using since all the way back when the original Motorola ATRIX was introduced to define their forward-looking approach to mobile computing. With Grey, NVIDIA retains a power greater than that of the Tegra 3 and gives it a boost while an i500 modem is integrated in with it.
The Tegra 4i works with R4 ARM A9 CPU architecture, this still employing 4-PLUS-1 technology with a fifth battery-saver core that works with low-power tasks for battery conservation. This is compared with the Tegra 4 which works with four ARM A15 cores (plus a fifth with the same technology onboard). The Tegra 4i also works with a 60 Core GPU arrangement rather than the 72 Core setup the Tegra 4 has.
Sizing up Tegra 4i
This little beast known as the Tegra 4i is what NVIDIA calls the “highest performing single chip smartphone processor [in the world]” when this article is published. While we’ll only be able to test this for ourselves when we’ve gotten our hands on the hardware, it would appear that their first show of power relies on the power per millimeter squared results from NV R&D, as you’ll see in a press deck shot here:
NVIDIA also shows a comparison between the S800 Krait CPU (used in some key competitor processors, mind you) and the CPUs of both the Tegra 4 and 4i. You’ll see here that the max Perf and Perf / clock are superior on the Tegra 4, while the size of the core is smallest on the Tegra 4i’s R4 A9 CPU, as is what NVIDIA says will be the raw ability to conserve battery power. It’s the Perf per millimeter squared, again, that shows the intense power of the Tegra 4i, working at more than double the ability of the Tegra 4 (based on size ratio, of course).
With Tegra 4i you’ve got a a new quad-core architecture with ARM R4 A9 cores clocked at 2.3GHz each. You’ve got your integrated i500 (Icera, that is) modem, and 60 GPU cores. Inside you’ve also got an integrated video engine, image signal processor, optimized memory interface, and some fabulous computational photography architecture (going by the name “NVIDIA Chimera”) as well.
NVIDIA Chimera
With the NVIDIA Tegra 4i we’re seeing another revelation in the abilities of the Tegra 4 family (including Tegra 4 and 4i at this point) to shoot great photos. With the reveal of the Tegra 4i, we’ve been shown (in brief) not only that this processor will enable phones to work with NVIDIA Chimera’s “Always On HDR”, but “Tap to Track” and “HDR Pano” as well. This is also the first time we’ve heard the brand “NVIDIA Chimera” attached to the suite of computational photography architecture features.
With Tap to Track you’ll be able to tap on your device’s viewfinder to keep focus and lighting based on a single object – and not just a person. Tap to Track is able to lock on to any kind of object and will retain a sensor on that object as long as it (or they) remain in view. This will be fabulous for tracking a soccer ball, for example.
With HDR Pano you’ll be working with panographic photos that collect multiple exposures instantly – not unlike the Tegra 4′s previously announced Always On HDR. Here you’ll get vibrant and wonderfully thick-colored panographic photos every time you shoot.
Phoenix Reference Phone Platform
With the Tegra 4i, NVIDIA begins creating reference platforms for each new processor. In this case it means you’ll be seeing a 5-inch display-toting smartphone with 1080p resolution across the front, an 8mm thin body, and 4G LTE connectivity. This device also works with PRISM 2, DirectTouch, and the full-on Tegra 4i build for NVIDIA Chimera Computational Photography Architecture use – snap away!
Wrap-up
In the end with the Tegra 4i you’ve got the second wing in a flying processor bird that is NVIDIA’s next-generation Tegra 4 family. With the NVIDIA Tegra 4i the company has presented their solution for entering the mass market in a way they’ve not attempted in the past. With this release, the Tegra smartphone floodgates can officially be opened.
Have a peek at the timeline below to gain more insight into what the Tegra 4 family is bringing to the market in the coming weeks and months. Expect the NVIDIA Tegra 4i to be in smartphones within the next few months and mass adoption to be on the market around the start of 2014.
NVIDIA Tegra 4i detailed: quad-core with wide market appeal is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
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