Were you one of the people that thought Project SHIELD was pointless? Prepare to eat your words. Here at GTC, I caught a glimpse of an NVIDIA employee flying his new Parrot AR Drone, running on Project SHIELD. 

While walking around the showroom here at GTC, we ran into a demo of NVIDIA’s Tegra 4 developer reference model showing off the nifty new HDR software. This same software was shown off at CES in January, but since Tegra 4 is still unavailable to consumers, it’s still labeled as “new” and “cool.” 

This morning at GTC, NVIDIA’s CEO unveiled an official roadmap for their mobile processor line, Tegra. Currently, many devices feature a Tegra 3 processor, known as the world’s first quad-core processor for mobile devices. At this year’s CES, NVIDIA announced the Tegra 4 with a built in LTE modem, although we have still to see the Tegra 4 hit mass production in phones and tablets. 

If you are interested in the world of mobile processors and the next generation of GPU’s, then the GPU Technology Conference in San Jose, CA is where you want to be. I am here live at their keynote, where NVIDIA CEO, Jen-Hsun Huang is set to kick off the conference.

We were told to expect some “surprises” on Tegra and gaming, so let’s cross our fingers and hope for something sweet.

At the 2013 CES, NVIDIA took center stage with Project SHIELD, showing off an upcoming Android title called Real Boxing. Well, we still don’t have SHIELD (and you know how I feel about that), but Real Boxing hit Google Play this AM. Real Boxing is the most life-like fighting experience you will find on Android currently, bringing enhanced 3D graphics and lighting. The game is so detailed, you will see every drop of blood as you pummel it out of your opponent. 

This morning, NVIDIA is continuing to tease us with a few upcoming Tegra 4 enhanced game titles that take full advantage of all of those GPU cores. Two of the five games look to be zombies games, but that’s just fine by me. The new titles include Burn Zombie Burn, Dead on Arrival 2, Carie: Blood Mansion, CODEX: The Warrior, and RU Golf. 

The Tegra 4i has us all excited. It’s basically the Tegra 4 with matched performance and matched battery life, but finally brings integrated 4G LTE capabilities. All of those specs make this upcoming processor something to keep an eye out for. NVIDIA is currently at MWC and put out a short video showing off some of the features of their newest mobile chip. 

Just minutes ago, NVIDIA and ZTE announced that the first smartphones equipped with the Tegra 4 processor would hit the market sometime before mid-2013. ZTE is a Chinese OEM, which means the device will probably not hit our shores, but it is great news that manufacturers are taking the initial steps in investing in the processor and its capabilities.