• NVIDIA Tegra 3 Super Chip Review and Specifications

NVIDIA® TEGRA® MOBILE PROCESSORS

Take your mobile performance farther with NVIDIA Tegra processors in all your mobile devices. Extreme multitasking. Ultra-smooth web browsing that’s up to twice as fast as other processors. Console-quality gaming. And the best battery-saving technology you’ll find anywhere. Even HD video capabilities for brilliant graphics on the go.

Key Innovations

• Quad-Core with a 5th Battery-Saver Core** - NVIDIA's innovative Variable SMP architecture (PDF 919 KB) enables four performance cores to be used for max burst, when needed, with each core independently and automatically enabled and disabled based on workload. The single battery-saver core (or companion core) handles low-power tasks like active standby, music, and video, and is transparent to the OS and applications.
• NVIDIA Direct Touch* - This is a patent-pending architecture that improves touch responsiveness and reduces power consumption by offloading a portion of the touch processing onto the Tegra 3 processor.
• 3D Stereo Gaming* - This capability leverages the award-winning NVIDIA 3D Vision® technology to automatically, and in real-time, convert OpenGL based games and apps into Stereo 3D.
• NVIDIA PRISM Display Technology* - PRISM (or Pixel Rendering Intensity and Saturation Management) reduces a mobile device’s backlight power while simultaneously enhancing the pixel color to deliver the same visual quality with substantially extended battery life.

^* Not available on all devices
^** Windows RT support still under development

Tegra 3 Specifications

	Tegra 3 on Android	Tegra 3 on Windows 8
Processor
CPU	Quad-core, with 5th battery-saver core	Quad-core
Max Frequency	Up to 1.7 GHz single core /1.6 GHz quad-core	Up to single core 1.4 GHz /quad-core 1.3
L2 Cache	1 MB	1 MB
L1 Cache (I/D)	(32KB / 32KB) per core	(32KB / 32KB) per core
Memory
Frequency	DDR3-L 1500 LPDDR2-1066	DDR3-L 1500 LPDDR2-1066
Memory Size	Up to 2 GB	Up to 2 GB
GPU
Architecture	ULP GeForce	ULP NVIDIA
3D Performance Relative to Tegra 2*	Up to 3x	n/a
Cores	12	12
3D Stereo	Yes	n/a
Full Programmability	Yes	Yes
OpenGL ES Version	2.0	n/a
OpenVG	1.1	n/a
EGL	1.4	n/a
Video (1080p)
Decode	H.264 (HP @ 40Mbps) VC-1 AP MPEG-2 MPEG-4 DivX 4/5 XviD HT H.263 Theora VP8 WMV Sorenson Spark Real Video VP6	H.264 (HP @ 40 Mbps) VC-1 MPEG-2 MPEG-4 DivX 4/5 XviD HT H.263 VP8 WMV Real Video VP6
Encode	H.264 MPEG-4 H.263 VP8	H.264 MPEG-4 H.263 VP8
Video Teleconference (VTC)	H.264 MPEG-4 H.263 VP8	H.264 MPEG-4 H.263 VP8
Audio
Decode	AAC-LC AAC+ eAAC+ MP3 MP3 VBR WAV/PCM AMR-NB AMR-WB BSAC MPEG-2 Audio Vorbis WMA 9 WMA Lossless WMA Pro G.729a * G.711 * QCELP * EVRC * * Through Third Party	AAC-LC AAC+ eAAC+ MP3 MP3 VBR WAV/PCM AMR-NB AMR-WB BSAC MPEG-2 Audio Vorbis WMA 9 WMA Lossless WMA Pro G.729a * G.711 * QCELP * EVRC * * Through Third Party
Encode	AAC LC AAC+ eAAC+ PCM/WAV AMR-NB AMR-WB	AAC LC AAC+ eAAC+ PCM/WAV AMR-NB AMR-WB
Imaging
Primary Camera	32 MP	32 MP (Max)
Secondary Camera	5 MP	5 MP (Max)
Mpixel/s	300	300
Digital Zoom	Up to 16x	Up to 16x
JPEG Decoding/Encoding	80 MP/Sec	80 MP/Sec
Still Image Stabilization	Yes	Yes
Video Stabilization	Yes	Yes
Features	Auto Exposure Auto White Balance Auto Focus Lens Shading 9th Order De-Mosaic Sharpening Programmable De-Noise	Auto Exposure Auto White Balance Auto Focus Lens Shading 9th Order De-Mosaic Sharpening Programmable De-Noise
MIPI CSI	Yes	Yes
Display
Display Controllers	2 Simultaneous	2 Simultaneous
HDMI	(1920x1080)	(1920x1080)
LCD	2048x1536	2048x1536
CRT	1920x1200	1920x1200
MIPI DSI	Yes	Yes
Package
Package	14x14 BGA 24.5x24.5 BGA	14x14 BGA 24.5x24.5 BGA
Process	40 nm	40 nm

^* Measured with GLBenchmark 2.0 Egypt

Dara taken from http://www.nvidia.com/object/tegra-3-processor.html (accessed on Jan 15, 2013)

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