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Nvidia's quad-core Kal-El demos next-gen mobile graphics, blow minds (w/ video)

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Re: Nvidia's quad-core Kal-El demos next-gen mobile graphics, blow minds (w/ video)

#3

Post by gvb »

That means the simulations we're watching require a full quartet of processing cores on top of the 12-core GPU NVIDIA has in Kal-El. Mind-boggling stuff.

Mind boggling indeed, but totally absent in the text and demo was any mention of power usage. Four cores running at 75% utilization plus 12 GPU cores is going to suck down a tablet battery in a hurry.

Re: Nvidia's quad-core Kal-El demos next-gen mobile graphics, blow minds (w/ video)

#6

Post by nextparadigms »

gvb wrote: post #3

That means the simulations we're watching require a full quartet of processing cores on top of the 12-core GPU NVIDIA has in Kal-El. Mind-boggling stuff. Mind boggling indeed, but totally absent in the text and demo was any mention of power usage. Four cores running at 75% utilization plus 12 GPU cores is going to suck down a tablet battery in a hurry.

Not (much) more than a Tegra 2 running at 75% utilization. Each Tegra 3 core should run at 50-60% power consumption of each Tegra 2 core, if history is any guide. When every chip maker works on a new ARM chip generation, they try to increase performance while maintaining the same overall power consumption of the whole chip. You won't see an ARM chip with 1W TDP in one year, and 1.5-2W the next year, when the new generation arrives. That's why we see dual core phones now with the same, or even bigger battery life than previous single core phones.

Even so, they manage to improve the performance about 2.5x every 12 months, and about 4x every 18 months. That's twice as fast as Moore's Law for x86 chips. That's why the ARM chips keep impressing every year on how fast they progress.

Re: Nvidia's quad-core Kal-El demos next-gen mobile graphics, blow minds (w/ video)

#7

Post by kapitalx »

xutopia wrote: post #5
nightlifelover wrote: post #2

Why did Apple break up with Nvidia..? Now they have to face the competition.

What do you mean? They still use Nvidia chips on Macbook and Macbook Air.

He means on the iPhone and iPad. Nvidia acquired PortalPlayer which was the chip used in the iPods, but Apple decided not to use them anymore and developed their own chip. Meanwhile PortalPlayer chips eventually became Tegra.

Also due to a lawsuit that was recently settled with Intel, Nvidia was unable to provide Nehalem chipsets to Apple, meaning that Apple ended up shipping Nvidia's Core 2 Duo chipset, but that won't last forever and Apple will eventually need a different partner (ATI). Nvidia announced earlier this year that they are developing their own CPUs based on ARM for desktops/notebooks, who knows maybe that will end up in Apple notebook line.

Re: Nvidia's quad-core Kal-El demos next-gen mobile graphics, blow minds (w/ video)

#8

Post by tobylane »

kapitalx wrote: post #7
xutopia wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you mean? They still use Nvidia chips on Macbook and Macbook Air.

He means on the iPhone and iPad. Nvidia acquired PortalPlayer which was the chip used in the iPods, but Apple decided not to use them anymore and developed their own chip. Meanwhile PortalPlayer chips eventually became Tegra. Also due to a lawsuit that was recently settled with Intel, Nvidia was unable to provide Nehalem chipsets to Apple, meaning that Apple ended up shipping Nvidia's Core 2 Duo chipset, but that won…

Or Sandy bridge and a compatible graphics card.

Re: Nvidia's quad-core Kal-El demos next-gen mobile graphics, blow minds (w/ video)

#9

Post by nextparadigms »

UtestMe wrote: post #4

I bet Google will come up with Chrome for phones and let Nvidia fully run on its new OS. I can foresee Android killing more than 2 cores out of Kal-El' 4...

I was disappointed when Google made the same mistake with Google TV set top boxes, and put first Atom chips inside Chromebooks, which led to expensive units.

I hope we can see Tegra 3 Chromebooks as soon as they can be shipped in products(August). That should make Chromebooks significantly cheaper and with much better battery life (and thinner).

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