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NVIDIA Shield drops by the FCC, gets ready to fill pre-orders
Eager to get your mitts on NVIDIA's first Tegra 4 device? Cast your jealous eyes upon the federal government -- they've already got one. NVIDIA's Shield gaming handheld dropped by the FCC to get its label approved, betraying its original code name, Project Thor, in the processes. Hardly a surprise to see the device passing federal muster, of course, as it's slated for release at the end of next month. Unfortunately, the filings don't reveal any hidden goodies (that is, no cellular radio), just a standard WiFi antenna. Still, if label location drawings and test reports are your thing, check out the FCC link below.
HP intros the Split x2 Windows hybrid and the Android-based SlateBook x2 (hands-on)
The Envy x2 has never been our favorite Windows 8 tablet, but that hasn't stopped HP from selling loads of them. The device has been such a success, in fact, that the company is expanding the x2 series to make room for two follow-on products: the Split x2 (a Windows 8 hybrid) and the SlateBook x2 (an Android tablet). Starting with the Split (pictured above), this is the first time HP's made a laptop / tablet hybrid with a laptop processor inside, though Microsoft and others have of course done this already. In brief, it's a 13-inch slate with a 1,366 x 768 display and your choice of Core i3 or i5 CPU (these are Intel's Y-series Ivy Bridge chips we're talking about). As you'd expect, the keyboard dock packs a second battery, though it also makes room for an optional 500GB hard drive to complement the SSD inside the actual tablet. Other specs include two USB ports (one 2.0, one 3.0), HDMI, Beats Audio, WiDi and expansion slots for both microSD and full SD cards. The SlateBook (shown below) is a 10-inch tablet with a Tegra 4 chip -- one of the first to be announced by any company, in fact. Though it's a companion to the $169 Slate 7, it packs considerably higher-end specs. There's that Tegra 4 SoC, for one, as well as a 1,920 x 1,200, 400-nit IPS display and the latest version of Jelly Bean (4.2.2). As with other dockable tablets, its keyboard has a battery built in. Here, though, the keyboard also includes a shortcut for Google voice search. There's even a laptop-style trackpad supporting multitouch gestures -- a rarity on products like this. The hardware itself weighs about 2.8 pounds in total, with a spec list that includes two one USB socket, stereo speakers and SD / microSD readers. Both products will be available in August, with the Split x2 priced at $800 and the SlateBook x2 going for $480 (docks included). Now all we need are some battery life claims. In the meantime, check out our hands-on photos below. (Pssst: the Split unit we photographed was just a mockup.)
Tegra 4 reference tablets use SanDisk iNAND Extreme, mate a fast CPU with fast storage
It's well established that NVIDIA's Tegra 4 is at least reasonably quick. It's only quick when the storage isn't a bottleneck, however, which is why SanDisk has negotiated a repeat partnership as the official storage supplier for reference Tegra 4 tablets. Pop open one of the designs and you'll find either 16GB or 32GB of SanDisk's iNAND Extreme keeping pace with the quad-core processor. The reference deal may be more than just a publicity grab: it raises the chance that companies will use the speedier flash memory in their own Tegra 4 slates. Whether or not SanDisk makes it to shipping devices, the deal could lead to balanced tablet hardware that seldom leaves us waiting.
Aptina unleashes 1080p and 4K mobile sensors, entire point-and-shoot segment cringes
Hear that? That's the sound of the entire point-and-shoot camera industry bracing for yet another blow. As smartphone cameras mature, it's becoming ever more difficult to convince consumers to use anything other than their phone outside of special occasions where ILCs or DSLRs are necessary. Aptina has a lot to do with that. Here at Mobile World Congress, the sensor outfit has announced its 12 megapixel and 13 megapixel mobile image sensors, aimed squarely at next-gen flagship phones that ought to be coming out in Q2 or Q3 this year. The smaller 1.1-micron pixel construction is the standout feature, with the AR1230 capable of capturing 4K video at 30fps as well as 1080p video at up to 96fps. The AR1330 throws in electronic image stabilization support at 1080p, while snagging 4K UHD and 4K Cinema formats at 30fps. Over on the tablet PC / TV front, the AR0261 is a new 1080p-capable sensor that's destined to redefine what a front-facing camera can accomplish. It relies on a 1.4-micron pixel, and should have no issues capturing faces at up to 60fps when using its 720p mode. Furthermore, Aptina promises that this guy can work with applications involving gesture recognition and 3D video capture, but sadly, no OEMs are coming forward just yet with concrete plans to include it.
NVIDIA Tegra 4 benchmarked, breaks all sorts of speed records (video)
When NVIDIA unveiled Tegra 4 back at CES, we scrambled to get hands-on with a reference device. And though our initial performance impressions were positive -- it runs 1080p video and games smoothly -- there was only so much we could say to illustrate how fast the performance is. After all, Tegra 3 already does a fine job handling games and full HD movies. What we really needed were benchmarks, some quantitative data to help show the difference between Tegra 4 devices and whatever's currently on the market. Fortunately for all of you, we just got our chance: here at Mobile World Congress, the company has reference tablets set up expressly for the purpose of running tests. So, we did just that... over and over and over until we had a long list of scores. Meet us after the break to see how it fared.
ZTE to ship some of the first Tegra 4 phones by mid-2013
When NVIDIA unveiled the Tegra 4 last month, there were questions as to when it would ship in a phone, or whether it was bound for phones in the first place. ZTE has settled that question with plans to be the first company shipping Tegra 4-packing smartphones. The Chinese phone builder won't spoil the surprise by naming the devices in question, but the first models reach China by mid-2013. An LTE "super phone" is in the pipeline, ZTE says. With that fresh ground broken, we're mostly left wondering how likely it is that these devices will cross the Pacific -- as well as guessing which other companies are lined up for NVIDIA's fourth-generation silicon.
OUYA CEO sings the praises of NVIDIA, says OUYA will be 'best Tegra 3 device on the market'
OUYA and NVIDIA have a kind of love thing going on right now. The $99 Android-powered game console designed by Yves Béhar's fuseproject is powered by NVIDIA's Tegra 3 -- this much we already know. What we didn't know is that the folks at OUYA are working directly with a team of folks at NVIDIA on the project, and that NVIDIA is helping the company to max out its Tegra 3 processor for use on a console rather than a mobile (no battery dependency means the little chip can go much further than usual). "The partner that we've worked the most with, that is incredibly supportive of developers, NVIDIA, they have multiple people on their team dedicated to our account," OUYA CEO Julie Uhrman told us in a recent interview. She was responding to a question regarding partnerships the company's forged to make OUYA a reality, such as the aforementioned involvement with Béhar's fuseproject studio. Despite the OUYA running Google's mobile OS, Uhrman said, "We haven't worked very much with Google." As for NVIDIA, however, the American chipmaker is going all in, helping the OUYA to be the, "best Tegra 3 device on the market," according to Uhrman. That praise isn't all one-sided, of course; NVIDIA had praise to heap as well. "We have a dedicated team working with OUYA to ensure that Tegra 3's performance is being maximized. They've been amazing to work with," NVIDIA senior VP of Content and Technology Tony Tamasi told us. "The rich catalog of optimized and differentiated TegraZone games -- along with the work being done with developers -- ensures a flourishing ecosystem is in place and continues to grow." That support is unlikely to end with this year's OUYA. Uhrman said her company's console, unlike the big three console manufacturers, will launch anew annually, following the mobile model. And that model means beefier internals, such as NVIDIA's Tegra 4, announced just over a month ago at CES. In so many words, we very much expect NVIDIA and OUYA's lovefest to continue.
TSMC to triple 28nm chip shipment this year, asserts confidence in 20nm demand
At yesterday's investor meeting in Taipei, TSMC's chairman and CEO Morris Chang shared the good news that his company's 28nm chip shipment this year will triple that of last year, which should boost its annual increase in revenue to above the industry's average rate of seven percent. China Times reports that orders for TSMC's 28nm silicon are lined up to as far out as late Q3, courtesy of demand for ARM processors, baseband chips, graphics processors and x86 processors. This is no surprise considering the likes of Qualcomm (Snapdragon 600 and 800), Huawei (HiSilicon K3V2 Pro and K3V3), NVIDIA (Tegra 4), AMD (Temash and Kabini) and possibly Apple will be ordering more 28nm-based chipsets from the foundry throughout the year. TSMC did struggle with its 28nm supply for Qualcomm early last year, but it eventually caught up later on, and Chang stated that TSMC now owns nearly 100 percent of the 28nm process market. Looking further ahead, Chang said his company's already seen enough clients and demand for the upcoming 20nm manufacturing process, which should have a more significant financial contribution in 2014. The exec also predicted that at TSMC, its 20nm production will see a bigger growth rate between 2014 and 2015 than its 28nm counterpart did between 2012 and 2013 -- the former should eventually nab close to 90 percent of the market, said Chang. [Image credit: TSMC]
The Daily Roundup for 01.09.2013
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.
NVIDIA's Tegra 4 reference tablet hands-on at CES 2013 (video)
During our on-stage broadcast with NVIDIA, while we got another look at Project Shield, we were also surprised by the appearance of NVIDIA's new Tegra 4 reference tablet. Previously out of reach over at the chipmaker's CES space, we got to exclusively handle it and play some Riptide GP 2 (another first). The device -- which won't ever make its way to consumers -- was incredibly light, while the 16:9 11-inch display beamed out Android 4.2. There's a raft of ports for developers to meddle with, including micro-USB, HDMI and storage expansion, as well as some indentations for docks and fixtures. In our hands, it's unerringly light -- and the NVIDIA guys seemed pretty proud when we mentioned that. Performance on the game and basic navigations was unsurprisingly very slick -- the game we tried was developed specifically for NVIDIA's new mobile chip. However, we weren't able to steal a glance at the web browser or other functionality, but we're likely to see and hear a lot more next month at Mobile World Congress. After the break, we've got some playtime with Riptide 2 and a video tour of the device. %Gallery-175577% Note: In the video, we mention that the device is running Ice Cream Sandwich, but it's actually running Jelly Bean. Apologies for the error.
NVIDIA's Matt Wuebbling demos Tegra 4 reference tablet on the Engadget stage
NVIDIA just pulled its reference design for Tegra 4-based tablets out from behind glass for the first time at CES on our very own stage. This isn't the first Tegra 4 machine we've seen, but the reference design caries a lot of weight (or in this case weighs next to nothing) when it comes to how other build their own Android tablets. Update: We got to grips with the reference tablet. Read up about it here.
Audi to take NVIDIA powered MIB systems global, drive Tegra through Asian, North American markets
NVIDIA and Audi have been building high-end infotainment systems for some time, but until now, the best of the team's efforts have only been available to European drivers. Not anymore -- NVIDIA announced today that Audi's latest Tegra-based MIB high-end is ready to hit the road, and is due to arrive in major markets in Asia, the US and Canada by 2014. The system uses a variety of technologies to offer drivers live updates from Google Earth real-time updates on gas prices and even weather forecasts. Audi says it's planning to bring the MIB systems to all of it's new vehicles, and is also pimping the tech out to other brands, such as Volkswagen and Skoda. The company didn't specify which Tegra chip would be making the international tour, but NVIDIA general manager Taner Ozcelik suggests that upgrading the system to the company's latest is a relatively smooth process. "NVIDIA's modular VCM approach lets companies like Audi quickly move from a Tegra 2 processor, to a Tegra 3 and beyond." Read on for the company's official press release.
The Daily Roundup for 01.07.2013
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.
Vizio shows off a 10-inch Tegra 4 tablet and a lower-end 7-inch slate
Earlier today we showed you the Vizio Tablet PC, the outfit's first Windows 8 slate. Now we're back for part deux, starring Tegra and a healthy dose of Jelly Bean. While touring the company's suite, we found two prototypes: a 10-inch tablet with NVIDIA's new Tegra 4 chip and a mid-range 7-inch model designed to take on the lower end of the market. Starting with the 10-inch model, key specs (aside from Tegra 4) include a 2,560 x 1,600 display, 32GB of on-board memory, NFC and dual 5MP / 1.3MP cameras. The 7-incher, meanwhile, has 16 gigs of storage, and steps down to Tegra 3 and a 1,280 x 800 resolution. No NFC on that one. Both run Jelly Bean, though -- stock Jelly Bean, at that. Design-wise, both have a rubbery, soft-touch finish, similar to what you'll find on the Windows 8 tablet we saw earlier. As ever, it makes for a sturdier grip, though unlike on the Tablet PC there's no beveling on the sides where you can rest your thumbs. Both models have narrow speaker grilles on the back, except the 10-inch model has two, while the 7-incher has one. As with the Tablet PC, the display isn't IPS, per se, but it does have some unspecified wide-angle viewing technology. Indeed, we were able to follow along with a movie from off to the side and with the tablets lying face-up, but we did notice the colors seemed a little pale. Washed out. As for Tegra 4, we wish we could tell you more but alas, NVIDIA is still being awfully protective over its technology demos. So, while the folks staffing Vizio's booth let us watch a movie clip, we weren't permitted to select other media files or play any games. All in due time, we suppose. Suffice to say, the 1080p movie we watched ran smoothly, but that wasn't ever really a problem on Tegra 3, was it? In any case, we'll surely be showing you lots more of Tegra 4. As for this particular tablet? We're not sure. Vizio hasn't confirmed whether either of these tablets will come to market, though it says there's a good chance, particularly for the higher-end 10-inch model. Whatever happens, we've got hands-on photos below, along with a video walkthrough of both devices. Follow all the latest CES 2013 news at our event hub.
NVIDIA unveils i500 Soft Modem with Tegra 4, capable of pushing 1.2 trillion ops per second
NVIDIA's apparently still not out of news from its CES 2013 presser -- the company just unveiled the i500 Soft Modem chip. The soft modem, which is the fruit of the company's purchase of Icera and is utilized with Tegra 4, is a baseband processor that can do 1.2 trillion operations per second and is reprogrammable with software to work with a lot of different networks. The modem, which is 40 percent the size of a conventional baseband chip, is sampling to manufacturers this month. Follow all the latest CES 2013 news at our event hub. Joseph Volpe contributed to this report.
NVIDIA officially unveils Tegra 4: offers quad-core Cortex A15, 72 GPU cores, LTE support
One new SoC per year? That's what NVIDIA pledged back in the fall of 2010 and today at its CES 2013 presser, it delivered with the Tegra 4's official unveiling. The chip, which retains the same 4-plus-1 arrangement of its predecessor, arrives with a whopping 72 GeForce GPU cores -- effectively offering six times the Tegra 3's visual output and is based on the 28nm process. It also is the first quad-core processor with Cortex A15 cores on-board, and offers compatibility with LTE networks through an optional chip. NVIDIA claims this piece of silicon is the world's fastest mobile processor, and showed a demonstration in which a Tegra 4 went head-to-head against a Nexus 10 in loading websites (you can guess which one won). The Tegra 4 also introduces new computational photography architecture, which adds a new engine to drive the image processing and significantly improve the amount of time it takes to calculate the necessary mathematics 10 times faster than current platforms. To show off its power, NVIDIA demonstrated HDR rendering on live video. The chip is also capable of implementing HDR in burst shots and with LED flash. The idea, NVIDIA says, is to eventually make our mobile cameras more powerful than DSLRs, and this is certainly a step in the right direction.
NVIDIA Tegra 4 processor details leaked: 4-plus-1 cores, 28nm, six times the power of Tegra 3
NVIDIA's next superhero-themed mobile chipset has possibly made an early appearance in a leaked side in China, and it looks like it wants to go toe-to-toe with the latest processors from Samsung and Qualcomm. The Tegra 4 (codenamed Wayne) will apparently offer the same power-efficient 28nm process found on its Snapdragon rival and according to the slide from Chip Hell, there's a dizzying 72-core graphics setup. That's six times as many GPU cores as Tegra 3 -- the processor found in the Nexus 7, for example -- and the increase is claimed to result in six times the overall visual performance. Those graphics cores will be able to feed displays of up to 2,560 x 1600, with 1080p output at 120Hz, while the leak also mentions 4K -- if only in passing. There's no increase in CPU cores this time, with the same 4-plus-1 setup , but we are seeing its move to ARM's latest design, the Cortex-A15. Tegra 4 will apparently also catch up with USB 3.0, being NVIDIA's first mobile chip to do so, alongside dual-channel DDR3L memory. We've reached out to chipmaker and we'll let you know when we hear more, but it's highly likely we'll be welcoming this next-generation processor early next year -- say, at a certain mobile trade show.
NVIDIA confirms no 'Project Grey' until 2013, Tegra 3 LTE later this year
While earnings calls are rarely the veritable dial-in party, sometimes they do toss up a juicy gambit or disappointing revelation. While NVIDIA was dishing out projections for Q1 2013, it pretty much quashed any hopes of seeing an in-house LTE Tegra chip in 2012. While we were assured that Tegra 3 LTE phones would come this year -- based on those partnerships announced back in February -- it was also stated that the thoroughbred Tegra LTE chip wouldn't be a reality until 2013. So, this pretty much ties in with what we had heard, but this time, from the horse's mouth.
Reported Tegra 4 roadmap hints at LTE, Q1 2013 release
Time to put on our "skepticles" as we pore over some reportedly leaked Tegra 4 details. NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang went on record saying that we could expect a new Tegra "every single year", so if anything, the fourth iteration of the series is slightly overdue. Chinese site VR-Zone, however, thinks it's got the inside skinny on how the next deployment might look. If its alleged roadmap leaks are to be believed, there will be four variants, three with a quad-core ARM Cortex A15 configuration, with clock speeds from 1.2 to 2.0GHz. What caught our eye a little more, though, was the "SP3X" flavor. Not because it favors the A9, but because it appears to bring LTE to the table right off the bat. That said, given that it's not that long since NVIDIA announced the same for Tegra 3, we can't help but wonder if something just got lost in translation.[Thanks Rizwan]
Caption Contest: NVIDIA CEO flaunts tattoo on stage, still serving cans of whoop-ass
Oh sure, NVIDIA might not have had any physical chips to show off at the GPU Technology Conference earlier this week, but CEO Jen-Hsun Huang did have one very, very special exhibit up his sleeve. Paul: "And below the logo is a picture of all the shipping devices running Tegra 2." Don: "Here are the new logo designs we've been working on, Mr. Huang." Ross: "Take a cue from Peter Moore and go with temporary. You never know where you'll be in even just a few years' time." Chris: "Huang's Boxee Box tramp stamp, of course, would remain a secret." Joanna: "And this is why I hate gun, er GPU shows." Darren: "Whatever. At least it's not a Zune tattoo." Richard Lai: "Yo Intel, this is how embedded is done." Vlad: "Jen-Hsun's displays of support for Notion Ink are starting to get out of hand..."
