Nvidia White Paper on dual-core ARM processor Tegra 2 before
Nvidia has a White Paper (PDF) presented to its Tegra-2 processor family. These are dual-core CPUs based on the ARM Cortex-A9 architecture. The new CPUs are already in Toshiba's Android netbook AC100 used. In future, smartphones series Optimus by LG with the new processor equipped be.
In the course of 2011 will go the trend in high-end smartphones clearly dual-core ARM CPUs. This resulted from the simple fact that an increase in Taktfreuquenz, which is technically not a problem leads to a disproportionate increase in electricity consumption. The power consumption is proportional to the square of the voltage and clock frequency. Since a higher clock frequency at the same time also requires a higher voltage, are multi-core architectures with a moderate clock frequencies, the better alternative in the mobile space.
Current high-end smartphones are equipped with clock frequencies to 1 GHz. One could, however, identify performance problems when multitasking. There are clear that if you can see on a web page Flash animations. Android smartphones but would offer Flash support, however, the response times would take too much. A dual-core architecture can use a core for the Flash animation, while the second make sure that your phone still performant react to user input. With a dual-core CPU generally attributed the need for multitasking operating system vendors restrict or prohibit.
Even seemingly static web pages to load can be significantly improved. In the Web 2.0 era, there is less and less easily linked websites. Links were often composed on the fly using some complex JavaScript functions. If more than one of these links are on a website could provide a multi-core architecture for a speed advantage.
The Moonbat benchmark, which measures the performance of multithreaded javascript, have a Tegra-2 processor, the 2.5-times the speed of Nexus One and Samsung Galaxy S achieved. The tests were carried out under Android 2.2 with Firefox. Firefox Mobile is currently in beta phase.
The Tegra 2 can meet current smartphones Moonbat benchmark. Suspicious, the fact that Nvidia has used a beta of Firefox mobile and not the default browser on Android WebKit-based.
For a further performance boost worry the Cortex-A9 architecture. In contrast to previous Cortex-A8, the new CPUs support speculative Out-of-order execution. Each core is equipped with 32 KB L1 data and instruction cache. In addition, there is a common 1 Mbyte L2 cache, the coherence of a snoop control unit is ensured.
Special emphasis is laid on the capabilities of the integrated Nvidia GPU. The 3D performance is compared with the Tegra 1 models by up to five times higher. We thus reach a level that was suitable for games consoles. In addition, the architecture between the mobile GPU and Nvidia solutions for notebooks and desktops are very similar, so that existing games could be easily ported from PCs to mobile devices.
So far, Nvidia has had in marketing its Tegra processors for smartphones little success. Many manufacturers preferred other ARM CPUs, especially the Snapdragon processors Qualcomm. Qualcomm Dual-core CPUs based on the Cortex-A9 architecture for next year announced. First test samples to be shipped earlier this year. They are manufactured in a structure width of 28 nanometers and support in addition to Bluetooth, WLAN, GPS, GSM and UMTS support the emerging wireless standard LTE. The clock frequency is 1.2 GHz.
Nvidia Tegra can produce its current 2-CPUs in 40-nanometer technology. For future models of the white paper makes no reference to clock frequencies, linewidths and supported wireless technologies. A structure width of 28 nanometers can reduce the power consumption compared to 40 nanometers at the same clock speed by about 65 percent.
Other Electronics News:
