Over at Las Vegas earlier today, Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang unveiled the company’s brand-new Tegra X1 system on a chip (SoC), the new processor with a Maxwell-based GPU architecture. It is the successor to last year’s Tegra K1 SoC that has both 32- and 64-bit CPUs with a 192-core Kepler-based GPU. K1 is said to be Nvidia’s first processor that unify both desktop and mobile architectures. The clear benefit of this is that it could be much easier for developers to port apps and games from a PC to a mobile device, and sometimes the other way round too.
The Tegra X1 uses the new 256-core Maxwell-based GPU, similar in core count as a low-end GeForce graphics card. It supports DirectX 11.2, OpenGL ES 3.1, OpenGL 4.4, AEP, Nvidia CUDA, and even the unreleased DirectX 12 that will only ship with the upcoming Windows 10.
X1 is an 8-core 64-bit ARM processor, with four high-performance Cortex-A57 CPUs with 2MB L2 cache, and four power-efficient Cortex-A53 CPUs with 512KB L2 cache. It is fabricated in a 20 nanometer technology by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Limited (TSMC).
During the keynote, Huang boasts that the Tegra X1 supports HDMI 2.0 at 60fps, 4K H.265, 4K VP9, and 4K H.264, with 60Hz for 4K and 120Hz for 1080p outputs. There doesn’t seem to be an integrated modem, so expect the processor to only show up in tablets and gaming handhelds, but not in smartphones.
Visit http://www.nvidia.com/object/tegra-x1-processor.html for more about the Nvidia Tegra X1.
With all these power, Nvidia later shifted its focus towards the automotive space, particularly on navigational assistance and in-car infotainment systems, with Nvidia Drive.
Nvidia Drive PX is dubbed an “autopilot car computer” that contains two Tegra X1 chips, plus a set of up to 12 high-definition cameras to scan and map a model of the surrounding environment. It is later processed by Nvidia’s “deep learning” technology to identify objects like cars, pedestrians, road signs, and even image contexts like the flashing lights from ambulances. These information can be used to develop and assist future autonomous cars.
Nvidia Drive CX on the other hand, handles the in-car dash system, what the company calls a “digital cockpit computer”. The Tegra X1 processor is powerful enough to power multiple HD displays on the car’s dashboard, and is said to also support most well-known car OSes like QNX, Android Auto, Apple CarPlay, and even other custom Linux platforms. The hardware comes with Nvidia’s Drive Studio software that offers customizations such as a themed speedometer, for instance.
For more information about Nvidia Drive, visit its Drive PX page here, and its Drive CX page here. I’ve embedded the video of the whole keynote presentation below for you to watch.
Broadcast live streaming video on Ustream
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