NVIDIA today announced its new Tegra 4i processor. It is NVIDIA’s first high-performance, low power-consuming quad-core apps processor with an integrated LTE modem that is aimed squarely at the smartphone/superphone market.

On paper at least, the Tegra 4i out-performs Qualcomm's latest industry-leading chips in most apps processor measurements but, most importantly for NVIDIA, it also benefits from an integrated “soft-modem” that can be re-programmed over-the-air to support new frequencies and new air interfaces; something that most other modem vendors can currently only dream of. 

Finally, it’s designed to meet the demanding needs of nascent smartphone features like HDR video capture and FPS mobile gaming, yet its fifth “companion core” ensures extremely low power consumption in less demanding situations.

For a more detailed assessment of the T4i, as it might become known, read Sravan Kundojjala's blog post.

This is NVIDIA's second major chip announcement in two months; their first was the "Tegra 4" announced at CES in January, but the two chips are very different. While the Tegra 4 has quad-core R4 A15, 72 GPU cores and no modem, the Tegra 4i has quad-core R4 A9, 60 GPU cores and an integrated LTE soft modem. Both are high performance chips but the Tegra 4 is aimed at high-end non-cellular tablets and superphones, while the Tegra 4i is aimed at high-end smartphones and superphones. Both have NVIDIA's trademark low-power companion core too, of course.

Stuart Robinson

Today NVIDIA announced its first baseband-integrated applications processor Tegra 4i, which is the first significant product from its acquisition of soft modem design firm Icera in 2011. We have analysed NVIDIA’s acquisition of Icera in a separate blog post. Also, Strategy Analytics analysed Icera’s soft modem technology in an in-depth report.

The Tegra 4i product, designed in 28 nm, integrates 2.3 GHz quad-core R4 ARM Cortex-A9 processor with a companion power saving core, 60 core GPU and, most importantly, Icera multi-mode LTE modem (optimised version of Icera i500 stand-alone LTE baseband) functionality. The 2.3GHz quad-core R4 Cortex-A9 was jointly designed by NVIDIA and ARM.  NVIDIA claims that the Tegra 4i’s core size is half the size of its nearest quad-core LTE competitor (Qualcomm Snapdragon 800).

The Tegra 4i supports FDD-LTE, TD-LTE and also legacy air interfaces HSPA+/TD-SCDMA/EDGE/GPRS/GSM. The product also supports VoLTE standard and is expected to appear in commercial devices in Q4 2013.

With Tegra 4i, NVIDIA will join the elite LTE-integrated applications processor club. So far Qualcomm is the only mobile chip company that is shipping LTE applications processors in volume. Qualcomm’s 28 nm-based LTE Snapdragon processor MSM8960 gained strong traction in 2012 and featured in multiple LTE smartphone flagships. ST-Ericsson (L8540 and L8580) and Renesas (MP6530) also announced LTE applications processors that are expected to be commercially available by Q4 2013. Samsung, GCT Semiconductor, Sequans, Altair Semiconductor, Intel, Broadcom, Spreadtrum and Marvell have all announced / shpping slim LTE modems but haven’t yet announced LTE applications processors. MediaTek is also expected to field its first LTE applications processor in 2013-14 time frame.

The Tegra 4i is a step in the right direction for NVIDIA to be a significant player in the mobile processor market. Based on our estimates, NVIDIA has less than 1 percent share in the baseband market and less than 2 percent share in the smartphone applications processor market. However, NVIDIA maintained its lead in the non-iPad tablet market with a one-third share in tablet applications processors in Q3 2012.

We’ve been saying for a while that baseband-integration is necessary to capture bigger volume in the smartphone applications processor market. Based on our estimates, baseband-integrated applications processors accounted for 62 percent of total smartphone applications processors shipped in Q3 2012. The Tegra 4i product increases NVIDIA’s addressable market and focusing on LTE certainly makes sense.  We estimate that LTE basebands showed fastest growth among all air interface technologies and accounted for 18 percent of total cellular baseband revenue in 2012, up from just 2 percent in 2011.

Today NVIDIA also announced its “Phoenix” reference platform, which is based on Tegra 4i. Smartphones based on this reference platform are expected to pack 5-inch 1080p displays with 8mm thicknesss profile. Strategy Analytics believes that the low-to-mid range market is currently driven by reference designs. Companies including Qualcomm, MediaTek, Spreadtrum, Intel and Broadcom are already active with reference design programmes in order to promote their chipset offerings. NVIDIA needs to fight these companies to build share.

Overall, we’re impressed with NVIDIA’s ability to bring a leading-edge LTE applications processor to the market while some baseband companies are still trying to bring out their first LTE slim modem. The Tegra 4i is definitely a step in the right direction and certainly increases NVIDIA’s addressable market and also provides some competition to LTE market leader Qualcomm.

Sravan.K Kundojjala

Back in February 2011 at MWC we were introduced to NVIDIA’s new processor, which was named Project Kal-El, and featured four cores each running at up to 1.4GHz. More and more details about the chip have been revealed in the past few months and, finally, today it was officially renamed as Tegra 3. The name of the first product to use Tegra 3 was also confirmed today as the ASUS Eee Pad Transformer Prime, a 10.1-inch tablet which will go on sale in December, just a few months ahead of the first quad core smartphone which looks like being the HTC Edge.

Tegra 3 is not just a quad core version of Tegra 2 though. Yes, it uses the same 40nm process node, and yes, each core is an ARM Cortex-A9, but the similarities more or less end there. Tegra 3 doesn’t actually have four CPU cores, the really inspired innovative part is that it has five CPU cores (more on that in a moment) plus a few other improvements such as a 12-core GPU giving 3x better performance than Tegra 2, an improved ISP, faster access to storage, higher memory bandwidth and, perhaps most significantly, longer battery time due to reduced power consumption.

Analysis of the unique features of this highly impressive chip and the implications on other apps processor vendors can be found in this report published by the Handset Component Technologies service today.

Back to the most interesting aspect of Tegra 3, it’s a quad core processor…with 5 cores.

But, it should not be called a 5 core processor, because the maximum number of cores that can be active at any time is four. The clever part is that the four main Cortex-A9 cores, each running at up to 1.4 GHz, are built using a standard general purpose silicon process while the fifth core, officially called the Companion Core, is built on a low power silicon process and has a maximum clock speed of 500MHz. Using sophisticated management of the CPU cores, and a technique called Variable Symmetric Multiprocessing, Tegra 3 is able to deliver extremely high performance for gaming using 2 or 4 cores, and deliver extremely long battery life for less demanding applications such as active standby, audio and 1080p video playback, using only the low power Companion Core. More details on how this is achieved can be found in the report.

Stuart Robinson

Last week we published our cellular baseband processor market share numbers for Q2 2011 and based on our estimates total baseband revenues jumped 17.5 percent to reach $3.63 billion in Q2 2011.

Here are some highlights from our Cellular Baseband Market Share Tracker:

• Qualcomm ranked number one with 42 percent revenue share on the strength of its broad baseband product portfolio, covering various interface technologies including GSM, CDMA, W-CDMA, HSPA+ and LTE. Qualcomm's multi-mode LTE baseband product, MDM9x00, performed well in Q2 2011 and we estimate that Qualcomm had close to one-third unit shipment share in the LTE baseband market in Q2 2011. We expect Qualcomm's upcoming LTE Snapdragon processors will further boost the company's share in LTE basebands. During the quarter Qualcomm's increased sales to smartphone vendors helped the company to sustain its average selling prices (ASPs).

• Intel ranked number two with 17 percent revenue share in Q2 2011 with the help of its relationships with top-tier handset manufacturers. Intel's 3G shipments accounted for over one-third of company's total baseband shipments in Q2 2011 and firmly established the company as a strong number two to Qualcomm. Intel's 21 Mbps HSPA+ platform, XMM6260, performed well and the company ramped up well with high-profile design-wins such as the Samsung Galaxy S II. We believe that the XMM6260 is a strong contender for the Apple iPhone 5 despite competition from Qualcomm.

• MediaTek, Texas Instruments and ST-Ericsson also featured in our top-five revenue share rankings in Q2 2011. MediaTek’s baseband revenues declined 14 percent in Q2 2011 compared to Q2 2010 due to competitive pressures from MStar and Spreadtrum and the company's subdued participation in the W-CDMA market. ST-Ericsson showed signs of improvements with new design-wins for its renewed product portfolio, but the complete recovery is not expected to happen until late 2012, in our view.

• Broadcom and Spreadtrum continue to be the fastest growing baseband companies and showed triple-digit unit shipment growth in Q2 2011. We believe that over the next few years both companies can further their market share by expanding into 3G / 4G markets. Marvell, Icera (NVIDIA) and VIA Telecom also made good progress in Q2 2011.

Overall, the baseband market held up well in Q2 2011 and we believe that powerful secular growth trends such as shifts to new radio technologies (HSPA+ and LTE) will continue to fuel the growth in the next few years.