Taking place in Las Vegas this week is CTIA, another annual mobile/tech industry conference much like CES that takes place in January. Some well-known names are attending this year’s meetup, companies such as HTC, NVIDIA, LG and Verizon are all in attendance. Demoing their Tegra 4i processor with built in i500 LTE modem is Santa Clara’s NVIDIA, showing the industry that thanks to an update, their chip is capable of flying through large amounts of data in no time at all. 

Using Phoenix, their reference device for manufacturers, the Tegra 4i was able to pull through 150Mbps, an extra 50% boost in speed over their previous speed tests that took place at MWC in February. The gain in speed is thanks to a simple modem software update, no new hardware and not a new chip. Using the above pictured emulator, since no LTE Cat 4 networks currently exist locally, the Tegra 4i was able to demonstrate what would happen in the perfect world test – LTE Advanced speeds.

To close, NVIDIA also showed the chipset demonstrating video and audio playback on AT&T’s 4G LTE network. Sort of makes it exciting for when this chip will be placed inside of an actual retail device.

Via: NVIDIA

NVIDIA Shows Off More Tegra 4i at CTIA, LTE Advanced Speeds Are a Go is a post from: Droid Life

Last week, the vice president of investor relations for NVIDIA, Rob Csongor, spoke of the company’s mobile strategies moving forward through 2013 and beyond. Currently, Samsung and Apple make up exactly 50% of this year’s first quarter mobile sales, so according to Csongor, NVIDIA will look to partner with the “other half” of the market such as HTC, ZTE, Huawei and other lower-placed companies to push its line of mobile processor. 

In doing so, NVIDIA’s upcoming Tegra 4i processor would be seen in direct competition with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 400 chip, a chip that NVIDIA says can be outperformed three to one by the 4i.

The Tegra 4 and 4i were announced earlier this year, but we are still awaiting a flagship device to carry either chip inside. Anyone else hoping to see a device running either one of these before NVIDIA arrives too late for the party?

Via: Fool

Cheers Ben!

NVIDIA to Target Mid-Range “Other Half” of Smartphones Moving Forward is a post from: Droid Life

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. 

We get a good sense that the 60 GPU cores in the Tegra 4i and the Phoenix reference phone that it’s packed in are being put to good use. The graphical power of this chip shines in the display of an HD boxing game and a 1080p trailer for an upcoming Tom Cruise flick. NVIDIA also explains how the CPU and GPU in the 4i help the phone to take better HDR photos than the competition.

As for the Phoenix phone, don’t expect to get your hands on it anytime soon. It’s a sleek and simple device, with no real physical features to speak of other than the addition of HDMI-out. Think of it more as a developer platform that OEMs will get to tinker with and build off of.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Via: NVIDIA

Video: NVIDIA Shows Off Phoenix Reference Phone, 1080p Display and Beastly Gaming Performance is a post from: Droid Life

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. 

Also, NVIDIA announced that they are working closely with ZTE to release an additional LTE “super phone” using the all-new i500 LTE chipset. As always, no word on if we will see that device come to the U.S. either.

It may not be the OEM we were hoping for, but in reality, the Tegra 4 was only announced last month and even then, it was still technically unfinished. Now that the LTE variant is a go, we will probably see more manufacturers like ASUS, HTC (maybe), and others start hopping on board.

ZTE and NVIDIA Partner To Launch First Tegra 4 Super Phones 

New Devices to Feature 72 Custom GPU Cores, Quad-Core Cortex-A15 CPU, Icera i500 LTE Chipset for High Performance, Power Efficiency, Fast 4G Networking 

20 February 2013, Shenzhen, China – ZTE Corporation (“ZTE”), a publicly-listed global provider of telecommunications equipment, network solutions and mobile devices has announced that it is partnering with NVIDIA to deliver the first super phones powered by the NVIDIA® Tegra® 4 mobile processor, with the first models to reach the market before mid-year.

ZTE has a long-term strategic partnership with NVIDIA and expects to launch the first Tegra 4 super phones in China in the first half of 2013. The Tegra 4 processor was only announced by NVIDIA in January, at the CES 2013 exhibition in Las Vegas.

“This is a clear demonstration of ZTE’s ability to quickly develop, and bring to market, market-leading devices running the industry’s latest technologies,” said Mr. He Shiyou, ZTE EVP and Head of the Terminal Division.

The NVIDIA Tegra 4 will enable the ZTE devices to deliver ultra-fast web browsing, improved app load times, more realistic gaming experiences and great battery life – thanks to the processor’s 72 custom NVIDIA GeForce® cores and quad-core ARM Cortex-A15 CPU. Tegra 4 also enables worldwide 4G LTE voice and data support through an optional chipset, the NVIDIA i500 processor. ZTE and NVIDIA are also planning a new LTE super phone using the i500 LTE chipset for blazing-fast networking.

These new devices build on ZTE and NVIDIA’s success with previous smartphones such as the Grand X, the first smartphone powered by both the Tegra processor and NVIDIA’s Icera modem; the Grand Era super phone with Tegra 3; and the U950, the first premium quad-core smartphone with Tegra 3 priced below $160 USD.

“We’re proud to continue our pioneering partnership with NVIDIA and are looking forward to offering more Tegra-powered devices, which are defining a new generation of phones offering premium mobile computing experiences,” said Mr. He. “Our Tegra 4 smartphones will provide full HD entertainment and multimedia experiences that consumers will love.”

“ZTE’s newest super phones will show off Tegra 4′s processing power, efficiency and unprecedented capabilities,” said Phil Carmack, Senior Vice President of the Mobile business at NVIDIA. “They’re a great example of what the market expects from one of the world’s largest phone makers.”

About ZTE

ZTE is a publicly-listed global provider of telecommunications equipment and network solutions with the most comprehensive product range covering virtually every sector of the wireline, wireless, service and terminals markets. The company delivers innovative, custom-made products and services to over 500 operators in more than 140 countries, helping them to meet the changing needs of their customers while achieving continued revenue growth. ZTE’s 2010 revenue led the industry with a 21% increase to USD10.609 billion. ZTE commits 10 percent of its revenue to research and development and takes a leading role in a wide range of international bodies developing emerging telecoms standards. A company with sound corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives, ZTE is a member of the UN Global Compact. ZTE is China’s only listed telecom manufacturer, publicly traded on both the Hong Kong and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges (H share stock code: 0763.HK / A share stock code: 000063.SZ). For more information, please visit www.zte.com.cn.

ZTE Announces Itself As First OEM to be Putting NVIDIA’s Tegra 4 In a Phone is a post from: Droid Life

This morning, NVIDIA announced the newest member to the Tegra 4 family called the Tegra 4i. This is their first LTE integrated chip, so if it’s adopted by phone manufacturers, we should finally start to see more Tegra-equipped smartphones in the mass market. In the past, Tegra chips were separate from LTE modems, which gave Qualcomm and their integrated Snapdragon processors a head start on LTE phones. With this new Tegra 4i chip and the technology behind it, NVIDIA may have a winning formula, one that will target the mainstream phone market, with Tegra 4 still powering superphones. 

Tegra 4i

The Tegra 4i features a quad-core (4-PLUS-1) CPU based on ARM’s R4 Cortex-A9 CPU, along with a fifth battery saver core. It has a 60-core GPU, an integrated version of NVIDIA’s i500 LTE modem, NVIDIA’s new Chimera computational photography architecture, and is about half the size of the new Snapdragon 800. It’s not quite the beast that the Tegra 4 is, but it does bring power and efficiency to the mass smartphone market that was once only seen in superphones. NVIDIA and ARM are calling this processor, which can be clocked at 2.3GHz, the “most efficient, highest performance CPU core on the market.”

Specs

Phoenix Reference Phone

To help get the Tegra 4i to market quicker, NVIDIA created the Phoenix reference phone platform, which sports a 5″ 1080p display, Tegra 4i processor, 4G LTE, computational photography architecture (for awesome HDR photos), and is only 8mm thick.

Chimera Computational Photography Architecture

If you watched NVIDIA’s press event at CES, then you likely remember their CEO standing on stage with an attractive female in some sort of beach setting, so that they could demo some sort of new photography tech. That tech, is called Chimera, and it’s included in both the Tegra 4 and the Tegra 4i.

Chimera introduces “always on” HDR, HDR panoramic or “fish eye” modes, and tap-to-track, allowing users to lock the focus onto a specific object, even as it moves around.

Camera and phone manufacturers can already add support for Chimera. In fact, Sony already has with its Exmor RS 13MP sensor.

Wrap-up

Quite a bit of big news out of NVIDIA’s camp this morning. We have the new Tegra 4i, a tiny processor with tons of power and efficiency, along with an integrated LTE chip to help bring NVIDIA’s processors to the mainstream market. They provided more details on Chimera, their photography architecture that takes HDR smartphone shots to a new level. And last, the Phoenix reference design, which should help manufacturers quickly build out devices using the new Tegra 4i.

NVIDIA Announces Tegra 4i With Integrated LTE Chip, 60-core GPU, and Half the Size of New Snapdragons is a post from: Droid Life