NVIDIA’s Tegra 4 will make smartphones even more powerful

Were you blown away with the power offered by NVIDIA’s Tegra 3 powering smartphones such as the HTC One X? Well prepare to be blown away even more. NVIDIA has debuted the Tegra 4 at CES, which will make future smartphones even more powerful.

Like its predecessor, the new chip comes with four cores. So what else does it have to offer? It also packs 4G and more graphics power. This means better gaming, web browsing, and videos.

The new chip packs four ARM Cortex-A15 cores and 72 GeForce GPU cores. This would make it six times more powerful than the Tegra 3.

Aside from improving gaming, web browsing, and videos, there are also new features to be enjoyed. This includes new camera features. One of these features is capturing images faster. Built into the chip is a photography engine, which works with any app such as Instagram. This means better photos.

Also included is a 4G LTE modem. This means faster 4G internet. This is great news since other networks aside from EE will be offering 4G data this year.

This all sounds great, but NVIDIA failed to mention which future superphones will be using the “world’s fastest mobile processor”.

Can’t wait to know which superphone will be using the NVIDIA Tegra 4? We’ll keep you posted once we know more.

Tags: CPU, mobile CPU, mobile processor, NVIDIA, NVIDIA Tegra 4, NVIDIA Tegra 4 chip, NVIDIA Tegra 4 processor, Processor, Tegra 4
Category Hardware News |

Reports says HTC planning to make its own chipsets for lower-end handsets

Samsung makes its own processors for its mobile devices. An example is the Galaxy S2 with its Samsung-made Exynos 1.2 GHz dual-core Cortex-A9 processor under the hood. Its upcoming Galaxy S3 is said to sport Samsung’s quad-core Exynos quad-core processor, which benchmark results have beaten everyone else including Apple’s A5X chip found on the new iPad as well as the Tegra 3 by NVIDIA found on the HTC One X. Now, HTC is said to do the same. China Times reports that the Taiwanese phone giant is planning to partner up with ST-Ericsson in a bid to create its own processor for low-end handsets.

Since Samsung creates processors for its devices in-house, it enjoys control over costing and the production of this hardware. HTC’s partnership with ST-Ericsson plans to do the same in the low-end market. The result will be more affordable devices on a budget from the Taiwanese company. This would also mean that HTC would be cutting down on the processors it purchases from chip maker Qualcomm.

Previously, HTC announced that it would be focusing more on the high-end market. The result was its 2012 One series consisting of phones such as the dual-core One S and the quad-core superphone the One X. However, we all know that emerging markets is a market HTC cannot ignore.

Do you think it would be in HTC’s best interests to create its own processors for lower-end handsets? Give us your thoughts.

Tags: chip, Chipset, CPU, emerging markets, HTC, lower-end market, Processor, ST-Ericsson
Category Hardware News |

Analyst says the new iPad’s A5X chip will not be used on the iPhone 5

When Apple launched the new iPad, it was soon discovered that the next generation tablet did not sport the rumoured quad-core A6 chip. Instead, it came packed with a dual-core A5X chip, which was a slight upgrade of the A5 chip found on the iPad 2 and the iPhone 4S. So does this mean that the iPhone 5 will sport the A5X chips as well? According to an analyst, this will not be the case.

In an interview with MacWorld, Linley Gwennap, principal analyst at the Linley Group, said, “’I think that this new chip is probably just for the iPad. It looks like they planned ahead for this.”

According to reports, the next generation iPhone is likely to sport a different processor, which is focused more on preserving battery life than delivering more intense graphics. Furthermore, Gwennap claims that Apple couldn’t wait for a 28-nm processor, which is why it opted to make use of the A5X on the new iPad.

Dean McCarron, principal analyst at Mercury Research, agrees will Gwennap. Also speaking to MacWorld, the analyst said that Apple does need to boost graphics capabilities on the iPhone 5, saying, “There’s no technical reason to make the iPhone display better.”

McCarron suggests that Apple will make use of a 28-nm processor that is designed to be more power efficient. He also suggests that this will happen sometime this year.

Tags: A5X, apple, CPU, iphone, iPhone 5, new iPad, Processor
Category Hardware News |