Everything else, Huang continued, is on the web. As we’ve already seen, in our preview of Windows 8 on tablets, the platform does a solid job of integrating the browser into the normal workflow, as well as allowing multiple pages to be juggled and simultaneously viewed on a touchscreen-only device.

Huang obviously has a vested interest in Windows 8 being tablet-centric from the start. NVIDIA chips are, the exec claimed, currently inside around 70-percent of the non-iPad tablet market, and he said he would definitely be open to powering future Apple iPads too.

As for the future, we’ve already seen a video promoting NVIDIA’s Tegra 3 “Kal-El” leak earlier this week, and Huang says the company is focusing its attentions on bringing down power requirements and reducing complexity. Some of those techniques involve taking advantage of the shortcomings of human users, he claims: for instance, using GPU-powered image-processing techniques that analyze colors and use a smaller palette, based on what the human eye can perceive.

For those of you that don’t know, the world’s first mobile super chip, that being the first dual-core processor sitting on a smartphone, was the NVIDIA Tegra 2. Internationally, this chip first sat on the LG Optimus 2X which eventually became the T-Mobile G2x here in the states, and the first smartphone here in the states with a dual core, the Motorola ATRIX, also had the NVIDIA Tegra 2. And the first tablet with a dual-core processor, the Motorola XOOM, also had an NVIDIA Tegra 2. You know what that means? I means NVIDIA basically beat everyone else to the punch. They also swarmed the world of Android in 2011, hitting a gigantic amount of devices, stomping all competitors of theirs in the dual-core market.

Read our post about Variable SMP for all the information you could possibly want about how the Tegra 3 works, that is four cores – or what’s that, five? Yes, five cores. The Tegra 3 will undoubtedly be called a quad-core processor, but you’ll be glad you read about how it’s actually got five CPU cores when it comes down to it. The video you see in this post should show you the lighter side of all this information – power here essentially means great performance and superior graphics – that’s all you need to know!

Back Story

A little bit more information about Kal-El before we continue: first, Qualcomm says “we’re not worried about [it]“, then we hear that the Asus Eee Pad Transformer 2 would be likely for the hero device for Kal-El, the quad core processor rumored to be likely for a 2011 holiday season release. You should know that I and we have declared 2011 to be the year of NVIDIA dominating Android Superphones and tablets, that one of the first Kal-El, and that NVIDIA has promised developer support for the Windows 8 platform for anyone willing to work to optimize their apps and games for the Kal-El quad core environment.

Also, on a separate note, you can get more information on NVIDIA’s GPU roadmap in a post from early August, 2011.

Dual to quad

Now today we get to see NVIDIA explaining what it means to have a quad core processor working in the mobile environment. What Project Kal-El was spawned from was the success of the Tegra 2 dual-core platform which, before production, was assumed to be a power-hungry hog for all the benefits is presented. Instead, because less power was needed to power two cores than was needed to power one, (this discussed in the White Paper entitled “Benefit of Multiple CPU cores in Mobile Devices” [.PDF]), NVIDIA went another step down the rabbit hole and brought out 4 cores.

vSMP and an extra, fifth, core

Project Kal-El works with a new Variable Symmetric Multiprocessing technology, also known as vSMP. As NVIDIA notes today for the first time, vSMP includes a fifth CPU core called the “Companion” core that’s built using a “special low power silicon process” which works on tasks at a low frequency – this works well for active standby mode, music playback, and video playback. The other main four cores are made in a more standard silicon process which is able to reach much higher frequencies. Each of these five cores is an identical ARM Cortex A9 CPU that’s individually enabled and disabled based on work load.

Higher Performance per Watt and Lower Power Consumption

Believe it or not, the quad core processor consumes less power and provides higher performance per watt than dual core processors AND single core processors. Because a quad core processor is able to share workload between multiple cores instead of rocking it all out on one, the work gets done faster and the workload doesn’t hit any one core with every bit of a task – this compared to any device with less cores shows the benefit of the multiple cores the same way five guys can make five burgers faster than one guy can make five burgers, and they’re all a lot less greasy than that one guy would have been.

Faster Web Page Loading Time

Two modern web browsers at least, Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox, are optimized for use with multi-core processors. Each tab on Chrome is a separate process and each process manages its own threads. The chat you see below shows CPU percentage used over an amount of time as four different webpages are loaded. Each core takes processes from tabs separately, all four cores working concurrently, getting the job done faster, quite simply, when it comes right down to it.

Moonbat Benchmark also shows off the four cores by showing how fast a processor processes Javascript, contending against a dual core processor for kicks. Moonbat here shows an almost 50% increase in performance compared to the provided dual core CPU.

Demanding Applications of the Future

High performance doesn’t let itself shine here in the quad-core world unless it needs to shine. Therefor NVIDIA works with developers to create games that make full use of their ultra-powerful SoCs. NVIDIA has provided here a list of future possibilities for apps that’ll utilize the quad-core landscape:

• High quality video editing
• Image processing
• Audio/video transcoding
• Physics simulations
• Numerous productivity apps
• Many forms of location-aware computing
• Facial recognition
• 3D stereo games and applications
• Virus scans
• File compression

Next there’s Coremark, a CPU benchmark which shows CPU work across intensive multimedia applications. Here each of several of the top dual-core brands are compared to quad core Kal-El. You’ll find that Kal-El delivers almost two times the performance of dual core processors, this happening across the board (with Texas Instruments’ OMAP 4 coming in second, if you’d like to know, but not by a long shot.)

Linpack is another benchmark the folks at NVIDIA run, here showing the difference between, interestingly enough, a dual core Project Kal-El processor and a full quad core processor (with, again, all four cores turned on instead of just the two.) You’ll find that the quad core processor wins by another long-shot.

Gaming

Most of the best game engines out there, Unreal 3.0, Id Tech 5 and Frostbite, are already multi-threaded and made for multi-core processors. Game engines are currently trending toward task-processing models with the sizes of individual jobs being reduced while number of threads is increased. Real-Time Physics and Rual-Time Texture Generation are but two tools used by the quad core platform to out-perform all competition.

Real-time Physics and Dynamic Texture Generation

With the power of four cores behind a user, they may turn to apps that create the environment in which they live AS they go about living. What I mean by this is, basically, if you’re playing Glowball, the textures, reactions to events, and physics change as you advance through the game, processed in real-time. Gaming performance speedup shown between the dual core Tegra 2 and the quad core Project Kal-El is plain to see on several different quad core utilizing games.

The game you want to play closest attention to here is Glowball as NVIDIA has already provided us with a look at the game which is yet unreleased and has shown us what quad core is truly and impressively capable of. Real time created environment created by you as you advance through it. Almost like you are processor god! The same goes for real time physics processed on the fly – if you don’t need it to start the game up right after you download it, you don’t need to include it.

Glowball is a game that for now just acts as a reference point for Kal-El. In the future it will be released as a full game for the masses.

One example of not needing all the information loaded by your game each time it loads is this: while the Windmill game (pictured above) generates texturess and racks up a 300 MB data limit, all of this using only a 900 KB base texture set. This means that a game capable of delivering 300 MB of graphics can also have those graphics, as they’re generated, with only 1 MB to start when you pick the device up from the store. What store would that be? We’ll see soon enough!

More Info

You can look into more information about Kal-El by hitting our big portal button or you can hit up NVIDIA’s lovely collection of Whitepapers where all your questions will be answered. You can check out the NVIDIA blog for more information as well.

The much anticipated NVIDIA Kal-El quad-core processor was first announced back in February, when it was slated to arrive sometime later this year. Both rumored dates for August and September have just about passed and it’s still not certain when exactly Kal-El-toting tablets and smartphones might hit the market.

NVIDIA unveiled its Windows 8 developer program yesterday, but with the new operating system not set to launch until later in 2012, we certainly won’t be seeing a complete Windows 8 tablet like the reference slate until many months down the road. Hopefully, an Android tablet with Kal-El will surface before year-end.

The folks at Engadget did manage to get several snapshots of the reference tablet and although they were not able to get a lot of details they were informed that the Kal-El is expected to offer significant gains in battery life, measured in days, not hours.

Can we expect both Kal-El Windows 8 notebooks and tablets in the near future? I think its pretty clear that we can! NVIDIA lets us know that they’ve got robust tools, SDKs, utilities, samples, and several partridges in pear trees ready for developer use, and with the developer copies of Windows 8 already launching on September 13th, we can go ahead and assume that the Kal-El chipset will be out sooner than later. Training and education were also listed by NVIDIA as perks of working with them to develop for Windows 8 devices.

Epic Games even had a bit to say about the program, EPIC and NVIDIA being good buddies and having worked together for over 10 years now – we can expect some rather fantastic games from this team in the future without a doubt on Windows 8.

“For over a decade, Epic and NVIDIA have worked closely together to ensure that Unreal Engine takes advantage of state-of-the-art GPU technologies. From the incredible DirectX 11 and PhysX effects in Epic’s Samaritan demo to the eye-popping 3D Vision experience in Bulletstorm, our engineers have always enjoyed collaborating with NVIDIA. NVIDIA’s developer support is the gold standard for chip makers. We’re excited by the announcement of their developer program and look forward to a continued partnership and to making the best games on the planet.”

Speaking from an Android perspective, I can tell you that NVIDIA will bring the fire, optimizing games to the tip top for Windows 8 systems and guiding us in with big bright lights that say “SUPER AWESOME” and so forth. Get all the information you need on NVIDIA in our Tegra Super Phones and Tablets portal and get pumped up about the future!

According to a source familiar with the situation, Intel plans to show Windows 8 running on tablets and notebooks with new Atom processors. The rumored Windows 8 Samsung tablet will also be running on Intel chips. Intel will be focused on its next-gen Medfield chips and providing more details on its ultrabooks during the Intel Developer Forum, but may also introduce netbooks running on Atom chips.

Windows 8 supports both the Intel x86 platform as well as the ARM architecture, allowing Intel rivals to expand into the PC business. NVIDIA and Texas Instruments are both expected to also show off some Windows 8 hardware at Build. Hopefully, we’ll get to see Windows 8 running on NVIDIA’s Tegra 3 or quad-core “Kal-El” processor, which are confirmed to be compatible and are due out later this year.

[via PC World]

What we’ve spoken about in the past in regards to Windows 8, first and foremost, is the ability of Windows Phone apps to work on said platform. We know that a few Windows 8 tablet app designs have already begun to reveal themselves. There’s even been news that a Windows 8 quad-core tablet will be revealed and given away at next week’s BUILD conference. NVIDIA Project Kal-El, is that you?

Best of all, we’ve got a column by none other than Chris Davies saying that though the iPad is still the clear victor over all tablets at the moment, Dismissing Windows 8 as an iPad rival is premature.

Another note of interest that points toward a quad-core Windows 8 tablet for BUILD next week is a quote dug up by ZDNet from a Alan Burchill post after he attended a Tech Ed show earlier this year:

“What is very interesting is that device was a ‘Quad Core Windows Slate that will be give(n) out at an upcoming Microsoft Event’… Hmmm…” – Burchill

UPDATE: He’s since modified his comments to point toward a dual-core Samsung tablet, but we’re sticking to our guns on something sort of fishy continuing to add up here.

Previously we’ve noted that it’s very possible that Windows 8 in a Public Beta form may be unveiled at CES 2012 in Las Vegas, Nevada. We’ve already got a bit of solid information on Windows 8 regarding its dual-interface design and that there will likely be a dedicated app store as well as Kinect integration of some kind or another. Finally, in a Windows 8 Revealed post, we’ve got video of no less than a tablet-friendly user interface and HTML5 apps ready to go! Have a look at that video below as well:

[via AFP]

Burchill posted to his blog some photos of the tablet being shown off, noting that what was very interesting is that the device was a “Quad Core Windows Slate that will be give[sic] out at an upcoming Microsoft Event.” If true, then the likely upcoming event would be the Build conference where Microsoft is expected to reveal more details on Windows 8 and even possibly handout developer previews or betas.

However, ZDNet reports that another Tech Ed New Zealand attendee at the session did not recall any promises of a giveaway and instead believes that Microsoft will only be showcasing the device at Build. Microsoft has not made any official announcements and has also declined to comment on the claim.

The mystery slate could feature the NVIDIA Kal-El quad-core processor, the first of its kind and the only one that might be ready by the time of the Build conference. Quad-core chips from Qualcomm, TI and other manufacturers aren’t expected to ship until 2012. ASUS has been rumored to be delivering the first quad-core Kal-El tablet as a Windows 8 version of its popular Eee Pad Transformer.

The original Asus Transformer is held in high esteem in the developer community as being one of the best all-round dual-core Android tablets on the market at the moment, being thing, powerful, and unique in shape. It’ll be getting a whole heck of a lot more popular in a second-gen device should it be the first tablet off the line with NVIDIA’s most powerful processor yet. NVIDIA CEO Jen Hsun Huang noted in NVIDIA’s last big conference call that the SoC would indeed consume less power than the current dual-core processor being shipped, the NVIDIA Tegra 2, and that this is the case “across the board in just about any work scenario.”

Note further that we’ve previously gotten word that the Transformer 2 would be released in October 2011. All of this lining up for you nicely?

We’ve got a full review of the original Asus Eee Pad Transformer for you to take a look at and we’re also anxiously awaiting our first review-type look at the Asus Eee Pad Slider, a device which also features a dual-core Tegra 2 processor. Smaller processor fabrication at 40nm for these new Kal-El SoCs should lower heat output at the same time it increases performance. All this and more as it’s very likely that the first quad-core tablet will also be running Android Ice Cream Sandwich for the ultimate tasty treat combo.

[via Android Community]

Specifications for the Eee Pad Transformer 2 are still uncertain, though earlier rumors suggested that ASUS would be using NVIDIA’s next-gen quadcore Kal-El ”Tegra 3″ chipset to offer a significant power boost over the existing Tegra 2 model. That SoC would apparently be running Android Ice Cream Sandwich, the next major update of the open-source platform.

Even with a new model on the horizon, ASUS still expects demand for the current Transformer to boom. Having shipped around 400,000 units in Q2 2011, company estimates are reportedly targeting 1m units in Q3. At the same time existing touch panel supplier HannStar and new supplier Wintek will both be furnishing ASUS’ production lines with components for the Transformer 2.

The assumption is that ASUS will continue to offer a keyboard docking station – hopefully with a battery inside it – so that the Eee Pad Transformer 2 can be used as a tablet or as a netbook alternative. However it remains to be seen whether the first-gen keyboard will be compatible with the second-gen tablet, or if ASUS will follow in the path of other Honeycomb slates and go for a considerably thinner design.

Previous reports have suggested that Amazon will use a Fringe Field Switching (FFS) display technology sourced from E Ink to rival IPS panels as used in the Eee Pad Transformer and iPad 2. E Ink recently announced plans to invest NT$1.5bn ($52m) into CPT, in return gaining access to the company’s 6th-gen production line and thus increasing yield for E Ink subsidiary Hydis’ FFS manufacturing.

Amazon’s 7-inch tablet – codenamed Coyote - will use a glass-on-glass touch panel, DigiTimes reports, provided to assemblers Quanta by both Wintek and CPT. The retailer is aiming big, too; 2.0m – 2.4m touch panels are expected to be shipped by the end of September.

A singificant number of 10-inch tablets are believed to be in the works, too, with the so-called Hollywood slate – that may use NVIDIA’s new quadcore Kal-El chipset – making up the remainder of around 4m Amazon tablet shipments estimated for 2011. Foxconn is believed to be constructing the Hollywood model for Amazon.

Both slates are expected to compliment, rather than replace, the existing monochrome epaper Kindle line, with two new models tipped for release by October 2011. One is expected to be a cheaper model targeted at students – perhaps using the same advert-subsidies as have been successful on the current range – while a second should add a touchscreen layer to the E Ink screen.

It should be Q1 2013 when things get really interesting, with the quadcore Krait chips arrival. The MSM8974 will run at between 2.0GHz and 2.5GHz, with 2MB of L2 cache, 800MHz DDR3 dual-channel memory support and Adreno 320 graphics. It’ll also pack LTE Cat-4, HSPA+ and various other connectivity support, and be capable of 1080p 60fps HD video together with processing images from up to 30-megapixel sensors.

Those chips should be propping up the flagships in tablets, smartphones and even ultraportable notebooks to rival Intel’s Ultrabook drive. SlashGear spoke to Raj Talluri, VP of product management for Qualcomm’s chipset division, about what makes the company’s chips special, particularly given that NVIDIA expects to have its quadcore Kal-El platform on the market sometime this quarter. The Qualcomm advantage, Talluri says, is that the company designs its own cores rather than, as with NVIDIA, TI and others, using off-the-shelf ARM designs.

“[Firms like NVIDIA and TI] don’t have the ability to make their own [cores], they haven’t mastered that yet” Talluri pointed out, suggesting that NVIDIA’s quadruple Cortex-A9 chip will sacrifice battery life in its pursuit of performance, while arguing that Texas Instruments was limited to just a pair of Cortex-A15 cores in its OMAP5 because any more of the toasty chips “would burn through the package.”

Instead, the VP claimed, Krait offers significantly more DMIPS per MHz (i.e. performance) than an A9 core, and is roughly on a par with an A15 core. However, when it comes to DMIPS per milliwatt (i.e. power frugality), Krait uses significantly less than either an A9 or A15 core. Rivals, he suggested, are merely targeting “multicore” rather than “the right core”; Qualcomm has already insisted that its existing dualcore is faster than Kal-El.

Update: Qualcomm has requested that we remove the roadmap information.

[via Netbook News]

The exact SoCs aren’t specified, but are certainly different to the NVIDIA Tegra processors we’ve heard about before. Back in May, leaks pointed to two tablets, the 7-inch “Coyote” and 10-inch “Hollywood,” which would be based on NVIDIA’s Tegra 2 and upcoming Kal-El quad-core.

TI’s silicon will apparently be paired with Wintek touch panels and ILI Technology LCD driver ICs, with Quanta Computer putting them all together. Monthly shipments in the region of 700,000 to 800,000 units are expected, with Amazon apparently targeting the Thanksgiving shopping season in the US and year-end holidays elsewhere.

Texas Instruments’ OMAP4440 1.5GHz dual-core is expected to show up in commercial products in the second half of this year, and its 1080p Full HD abilities (and 3D support) would seemingly make it a natural fit for Hollywood’s Prime streaming movie services we’re told to expect. If the rumors are true, it’s not the first time we’d have seen TI swoop in and replace a rival inside a tablet: RIM dumped Marvell processors in favor of TI for the BlackBerry PlayBook.

The analysts expect pricing around $399 for Hollywood, undercutting previous leaks suggesting $449. Coyote is believed to around the $349 mark. Amazon is yet to even acknowledge the existence of either slate, but the 7-inch model is tipped to use NVIDIA’s Tegra 2 chipset, while the 10-inch version will, it’s rumored, use the new quad-core NVIDIA Kal-El processor, launching later in 2011.

There’s still confusion over whether Amazon’s two models will be color ereaders or true tablets, or some hybrid of the both. What Detwiler Fenton does seem convinced about is that the combination of Amazon slates and Apple’s iPad makes for bad news for rivals like Motorola and RIM. They’re each only expected to shift a million units a year.

We hear that Amazon (AMZN) is prepping a new color Kindle (code named “Hollywood”) capable of streaming video and to be sold with a promotional video service offering. The device is expected to incorporate a 10” color screen and have a more robust applications processor than that expected for the smaller color Kindles AMZN is also expected to launch for the holiday season. It is particularly interesting to note that AMZN is expected to include its movie service for free for an unspecified amount of time to buyers of the device. This is the same movie service AMZN already offers for free to its Prime customers. We expect pricing will be in the $399 range in order to create enough of a pricing differential between it and the iPad.

As we have written previously, color eReaders in our opinion will take the majority of the tablet market share beneath the iPad because of price and content advantages (see 3/15/11 DF note: AMZN: Filling the low end tablet niche). The remaining niche of tablets (perhaps 5MM-10MM total units) will be fought over by a growing number of vendors including the Chinese OEMs offering $300 wholesale costs to the carriers. This would appear to put further pressure on premium priced tablet vendors Motorola (MMI) and RIM (RIMM), each of whom we expect will only sell somewhere in the 1MM unit range in 2011.

[via BGR]

According to Timmons, quad-core’s primary benefit today is on the spec-sheet, as something to impress OEMs and consumers. “For marketing purposes it’s great to be able to say ‘we’ve got the biggest’” he argued. “But in terms of devices there’s more to it than that.”

Qualcomm does have quad-cores on the roadmap, though they’re not expected until early 2012. The APQ8064 will use four Krait next-gen cores – rather than the Scorpion cores in the current-gen Snapdragons – running at up to 2.5GHz and paired with new dual- and quad-core Adreno GPUs. Timmons tells us that the APQ8064 (which, unlike the MSM-prefix chips, lacks an integrated cellular radio) is targeted at Windows 8 tablets as part of the Windows on ARM program, though a quad-core MSM version for smartphones is in the pipeline, its ETA unannounced.

Instead, Qualcomm is pushing its asynchronous dual-cores as offering the best balance between performance and battery efficiency. “Power is everything” Timmons explained, “how do I deliver this level of performance at a lower power consumption?” Rather than focusing on whether ARM-based chipsets can deliver the same outright power as x86 processors, like Intel’s Atom, we’ll be increasingly aware of DMIPS per milliwatt, or how much juice it takes to compute.

As for taking on NVIDIA’s Tegra Zone for promoting on-device game downloads, Timmons tells us Qualcomm has no ambitions to push its Snapdragon Game Pack as an alternative app store. “We’re distinctly not in the services business” he explained, “and don’t want to be.” Instead, Qualcomm will be focusing on OEMs using its Snapdragon chipsets, encouraging them to use the best-of-breed titles optimized as part of the Game Pack.

The OMAP4470 follows in the footsteps of the existing OMAP4430, the 1GHz dual-core found in the BlackBerry PlayBook, and the dual-core 1.5GHz OMAP4460 currently with developers and expected to show up in commercial products in the second half of 2011. It brings with it the POWERVR SGX544 GFX graphics core running at 384MHz with support for DirectX 9, OpenGL ES 2.0, OpenVG 1.1 and OpenCL 1.1, good for driving a display of up to QXGA 2048 x 1536 resolution or three simultaneous HD screens.

With chips like NVIDIA’s quad-core Kal-El in the pipeline, we asked Granger why TI has stuck with its dual-core strategy. Turns out, the OMAP4470 is a quad-core in a way: the two A9 cores are paired with two ARM Cortex M3 cores, used with TI’s Hardware Composition engine and dual-channel LPDDR2 memory with 7.5Gbps of bandwidth. That unique engine can offset processing – for things like multi-layer UIs – between the M3 cores and the POWERVR GPU and away from the A9 cores: Granger says that means the OMAP4470 isn’t just fast but power frugal, too, as well as offering performance where users particularly want it, in the browser and for graphically-complex games.

That power management, TI claims, means a smartphone or tablet with average batteries using the OMAP4470 is good for up to 10hrs of 1080p HD playback on a single charge, or up to 4hrs of 1080p HD recording. “OMAP4470 delivers the compute horsepower and system bandwidth to drive the best user experience” Granger says, for the “quintessential user experience” of a fluid UI and “class leading” performance.

Pin-for-pin, the new OMAP 4 chip is compatible with its predecessors, which means that manufacturers using the older versions face little work to swap over to the OMAP4470. However, it’s not just QNX and Android hardware which TI has in mind: as a member of the Windows on ARM Initiative, the chipset has been purposefully designed with Microsoft’s upcoming version of Windows 8 for ARM processors in mind. DirectX is one example of that, but generally TI is keen to take on Intel’s x86 chips when it comes to performance and battery life.

“We believe OMAP4470 is a great fit for an ultrathin laptop” Granger explained, highlighting that ARM processors generally add up to stronger battery life than x86 chips and that the latest models are now more than capable of competing on performance, too. Unfortunately he had no comment as to the rumors that TI would be the lead chip partner on Android Ice Cream Sandwich.

The TI OMAP4470 will begin sampling in the second half 0f 2011, with devices using the chipset expected to go on sale in the first half of 2012. As for what comes after that, well, TI’s OMAP 5 platform – led by the OMAP5430 and OMAP5432 – with two 28nm ARM Cortex-A15 MPCores running at up to 2GHz is expected to hit retail in the second half of 2012.

Press Release:

TI’s OMAP4470 apps processor: It’s all about the user experience

Latest OMAPTM 4 platform processor sets new standard for mobile computing, bringing up to QXGA display resolution, HD UIs and 2x Web browsing performance

COMPUTEX, June 2, 2011—Building on the OMAPTM 4 platform family’s technological achievements , Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) (NYSE: TXN) introduced today the power-efficient OMAP4470 applications processor, designed to deliver the perfect balance between processing power, graphics, display subsystem functionality and multilayered user interface (UI) composition. The multicore OMAP4470 processor surpasses current market solutions with clock speeds up to 1.8 GHz, an 80 percent increase in Web browsing performance, increased memory bandwidth, a 2.5x boost in graphics functionality—via the POWERVR SGX544 core from Imagination Technologies—and a unique hardware composition engine. Mobile computing and gaming applications running on operating systems such as Android, Linux and the next version of Microsoft Windows will benefit from the OMAP4470 processor’s enhanced capabilities. Customers designing ultrathin laptops, tablets or smartphones around previously released OMAP 4 processors gain the added benefit of pin-to-pin hardware and software compatibility for maximum re-use and faster time-to-market.

―Superior mobile computing relies on a user experience that dwarfs all others. Fast and crisp Web browsing, HD and liquid UIs, support for the latest applications—these are the elements consumers judge and buy their devices on. The OMAP4470 processor delivers the maximum experience possible with an unmatched, power-efficient architecture,‖ said Remi El-Ouazzane, vice president, OMAP platform business unit, TI.

Making HD UIs a reality

Courtesy of its advanced graphics architecture, OMAP4470 enables customers to leverage tomorrow’s leading-edge display technology by supporting resolution up to QXGA (2048×1536). The new applications processor drives still more unparalleled HD UIs with simultaneous support for up to three HD screens and up to 2x more layered imaging and video composition than competitive solutions—a capability required by the sophisticated UIs of next generation operating systems. This feature is enabled by the combination of a hardware composition engine with a dedicated 2D graphics core, a highly sophisticated display subsystem, and dual-channel LPDDR2 memory enabling up to 7.5 Gbps of throughput to composite the graphics and/or video data output. This frees the GPU to perform graphics-intensive tasks such as gaming or widget creation while the compositing process is assigned to more power-efficient hardware subsystems.

Powerful enough for desktop applications yet highly power-efficient for mobile applications, Imagination Technologies’ POWERVR SGX544 GPU complements the OMAP 4 platform’s promise of high performance, low power. The OMAP4470 processor is the first OMAP offering to leverage the POWERVR SGX544. Combining the SGX544’s features with the sophisticated OMAP architecture enables TI customers to deliver a new set of applications to end-users, including DirectX-driven games and videos.

―Graphics processing is now at the very heart of the mobile computing experience, providing the gateway to an enriched experience of user interface, gaming, location services, web and media,‖ said Hossein Yassaie, CEO, Imagination Technologies.

―Combining the OMAP 4 platform’s low-power, high- performance architecture with the extensive acceleration capabilities and API support of Imagination’s POWERVR SGX544 will enable experiences that will really make people sit up and take notice.

Availability
The 45nm OMAP4470 processor is expected to sample in the second half of 2011, with devices expected to hit the market in first half 2012. These products are intended for high-volume mobile OEMs and ODMs, and are not available through distributors.

The rumor points to the TI OMAP 4 chip as being the chip that Google favors for Ice Cream Sandwich. The reason according to the source of the rumor is that NVIDIA is lacking in engineering depth and innovation. There is also a strong indication that NVIDIA delays are part of the reason for a change. The source reportedly said that TI would deliver when it promised.

The source said, “Nvidia seems to have run out of steam, lacks engineers and has come up against a bit of an innovation wall.” Another rumor claims that Google may be looking at Qualcomm to provide chips for tablets running Android Jello, said to be the version of Android coming after Ice Cream Sandwich. The source says Google is simply going for the processors that seem to be the best at any given time.

[via Android Community]

In Glowball, the idea of the game is to use the tablet’s accelerometer to guide a glowing ball around a gameplay area, hitting trigger points – in the case of this demo, jack-in-the-boxes – to progress through the levels. The ball itself doesn’t use prebaked lighting animations, with Kal-El instead allowing the app to calculate the play of lighting in real-time, as it shines through the pattern on the ball and onto the various components of the arena. The ball itself can be changed, its pattern and brightness altered, and all with a real-time impact on what the game shows.

There are also various dynamically-animated elements of scenery, like curtains that hang and flutter depending on how you tilt the tablet, and barrels that move and reflect as you bump them. NVIDIA has built in the ability to virtually shut off two of the cores, so that you can see how sluggish it would all be on a dual-core device.

Best of all, production Kal-El chips should be 25- to 30-percent faster, according to NVIDIA, and owners of tablets using the new silicon will be able to test it out with Glowball as the company expects to release it – along with extra levels – in the Android Market. The first Kal-El slates are expected later in 2011.

According to the sources, the two slates are on track for a release timed for the holidays, though will offer regular LCD displays rather than Amazon’s initial preference for dual-mode e-paper/color panels like Qualcomm’s mirasol. Those, it’s said, won’t be ready for the mass market until next year at the earliest (though the mirasol screens will be inside at least one “converged ereader” later in 2011).

The expectation is that, rather than target Apple’s iPad 2, Amazon will take on other Android-based tablets with its pair, relying on its ebook and multimedia content catalog, along with its cloud storage and pricing clout, to squeeze out the competition. Samsung has been tipped as Amazon’s OEM partner, somewhat ironic given the company also offers its own Galaxy Tab 10.1 Honeycomb slate.

“The Android phone took only two and a half years to achieve the momentum that we’re talking about” he explained. “I would expect the same thing on Honeycomb tablets.” Kal-El will, Huang believes, help lead that drive. NVIDIA’s next chip has apparently found a space “at least ten” devices; “we have five major phone companies and we have five major PC [manufacturers]” he revealed. Kal-El was announced back in February, promising 5x the performance of Tegra 2 as found in current Honeycomb tablets like the Motorola XOOM and Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1.

Although first-impressions of Android 3.0 Honeycomb have been mixed, with feedback regarding the tablet-centric OS being reminiscent of criticisms leveled at early Android smartphone builds, Huang is confident those teething pains will soon be forgotten. “As a result of so many different parties working together, the first versions tend to be a bit clumsy to roll out” he conceded, going on to point out that “as is the nature of these organic industries with very, very large players, you have continuous improvement at a very rapid pace.”

Analysts recently suggested Apple’s tablet would likely dominate the segment for at least the next two years.

The folks over at BGR have now been tipped by insiders that Amazon actually has two tablets planned to be released before the end of this year. Not too much was revealed on the specs except that the entry level tablet is codenamed ‘Coyote’ and will run on the NVIDIA Tegra 2 processor. The higher-end model is codenamed ‘Hollywood’ and will run on the NVIDIA T30 “Kal-El” quad-core processor.

That quad-core processor is a 500% boost in performance from the dual-core Tegra 2 and should all the other specs in display, cameras, UI, and overall build align just right, not to mention Amazon’s edge on pricing, this would certainly blow away the competition. And with a schedule of hitting before year end, we may likely see these two slates just in time for the holidays.

[via BGR]

Today, pushing the boundaries of the microprocessor for mobile devices are the likes of NVIDIA, Qualcomm, Texas Instruments and Marvell. Those companies use the ARM architecture to create their mobile chipsets. Right now, NVIDIA is first out of the gate with dual core mobile devices; their Tegra 2 processor is in devices like the Motorola Atrix 4G, LG Optimus 2X, Motorola XOOM tablet, LG Tab and G-Slate and a host of other super phones and tablets. Qualcomm’s dual-core is in the HP Touchpad and Texas Instruments dual-core is in the RIM Playbook, both products will be out later this year.

Not standing still with dual-core, NVIDIA showed me a demo last night of their latest quad-core chipset code-named Kal-El, that will deliver roughly a 5x improvement over their current dual-core Tegra 2. NVIDIA executives said that they are expecting quad-core tablets to ship in the August time frame and quad-core super phones by holiday of this year.

So the real question is why do we need multi-core microprocessors in our mobile devices. The answer is so we can create better software.

More cores mean more than just a faster overall experience with a mobile device. It means more complex software can be written. It means more visually rich graphics and multimedia experiences. It means a more compelling web experience with next generation Internet software.

Just think about how primitive the software created in the 90’s was, or what websites were like in 2000 compared to the web of today. All of the advancements with software have been possible because the industry pushed forward and created faster processors capable of running next generation software. Those processor innovations were then taken advantage of by the creative software community who utilized it and made more compelling software. Ask any software engineer and they will tell you, there is not such thing as too much processing power.

The same will be true with mobile devices. We will look back in 5,10,15 years and think how primitive apps, operating systems, and the Internet were on our mobile devices. All made possible by the innovations in the microprocessor to deliver this next generation of computing.

Multi-core in mobile devices is not simply important it is essential.

The demonstration they gave was running on a development kit that looked like a finished tablet. They started by showing their latest generation quad-core chip decoding a video stream with a 1440p resolution; roughly double the resolution of 1080p and outputting video at 2560×1440 to a computer monitor set to 2560×1600.

Next they gave us a demonstration of a game, which the developer did not have permission for us to name or take photo’s or video off due to copyright’s not being finalized. This demonstration however was incredibly vibrant and visually stunning.  The tablet running Tegra 2 was delivering this game at approx. 18-20 FPS while the demo of the game on their quad-core chipset was delivering 50-55 fps.

I did get to video and take pictures of a game by War Drum Studios Great Battles Medieval, which was delivering roughly 3x improvement on the quad-core Kal-El. What was equally remarkable was that War Drum Studio CEO Thomas Williamson just got access to the quad-core development board last night and successfully ported his game for today’s demonstration.

Most importantly however was that NVIDIA executives stated that they were targeting August as the time frame for the availability of tablets running Kal-El and by holiday 2011 for super phones.   Which means we may very well have quad-core tablets and super phones in retail this year.