NVIDIA Tegra 3 and the secret fifth core

NVIDIA Tegra 3 reaches smartphones and tablets
 
NVIDIAs new release of Tegra 3 is given the codename Kal El. Though the processor is quad-core it actually has a secret fifth core called the companion core. NVIDIA has kept the finer details of this processor a big secret until a couple of days back when they released white papers publishing the technical details of this processor. All the five cores are ARM Cortex A9 processors. All the five cores can be independently turned ON or OFF based on the need and there is a Tegra 3 logic controller to do this task.

Tegra 3 exploiting the companion core

The operating frequency of the secret fifth core of tegra 3 is limited to 500MHz while the four main cores are permitted to function at the full potential of 1.5GHz. Thus companion core with less ability can be assigned less demanding tasks like background applications, twitter and facebook apps, live  backgrounds or themes etc. The four main cores can function with full throttle for high yielding tasks. NVIDIA has done many tests on Tegra 3 and the results show that it utilises 61% less power when compared to Tegra 2 during video palyback. Tegra 3 is best suited for mobile gaming puposes and during gaming it demands only 34% less power when compared to Tegra 2. Thus NVIDIA Tegra 3 has an ideal design  for smartphones and tablets.

About the author

I am Arun Thomas. I spend a lot of time researching on ubuntu distribution of linux and also on iPhones. Thus in my blog i write about technology, ubuntu, iphone, nokia.

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