Tegra


Tegra is a system on a chip series developed by Nvidia for mobile devices such as smartphones, personal digital assistants, and mobile Internet devices. The Tegra integrates an ARM architecture central processing unit, graphics processing unit, northbridge, southbridge, and memory controller onto one package. Early Tegra SoCs are designed as efficient multimedia processors. The Tegra-line evolved to emphasize performance for gaming and machine learning applications without sacrificing power efficiency, before taking a drastic shift in direction towards platforms that provide vehicular automation with the applied Nvidia Drive brand name on reference boards and its semiconductors; and with the Nvidia Jetson brand name for boards adequate for AI applications and for various smart high-level automation purposes.

History

The Tegra APX 2500 was announced on February 12, 2008. The Tegra 6xx product line was revealed on June 2, 2008, and the APX 2600 was announced in February 2009. The APX chips were designed for smartphones, while the Tegra 600 and 650 chips were intended for smartbooks and mobile Internet devices.
The first product to use the Tegra was Microsoft's Zune HD media player in September 2009, followed by the Samsung M1. Microsoft's Kin was the first cellular phone to use the Tegra; however, the phone did not have an app store, so the Tegra's power did not provide much advantage. In September 2008, Nvidia and Opera Software announced that they would produce a version of the Opera 9.5 browser optimized for the Tegra on Windows Mobile and Windows CE. At Mobile World Congress 2009, Nvidia introduced its port of Google's Android to the Tegra.
On January 7, 2010, Nvidia officially announced and demonstrated its next generation Tegra system-on-a-chip, the Nvidia Tegra 250, at Consumer Electronics Show 2010. Nvidia primarily supports Android on Tegra 2, but booting other ARM-supporting operating systems is possible on devices where the bootloader is accessible. Tegra 2 support for the Ubuntu Linux distribution was also announced on the Nvidia developer forum.
Nvidia announced the first quad-core SoC at the February 2011 Mobile World Congress event in Barcelona. Though the chip was codenamed Kal-El, it is now branded as Tegra 3. Early benchmark results show impressive gains over Tegra 2, and the chip was used in many of the tablets released in the second half of 2011.
In January 2012, Nvidia announced that Audi had selected the Tegra 3 processor for its In-Vehicle Infotainment systems and digital instruments display. The processor will be integrated into Audi's entire line of vehicles worldwide, beginning in 2013. The process is ISO 26262-certified.
In summer of 2012 Tesla Motors began shipping the Model S electric sedan, which contains two NVIDIA Tegra 3D Visual Computing Modules. One VCM powers the 17-inch touchscreen infotainment system, and one drives the 12.3-inch all digital instrument cluster."
In March 2015, Nvidia announced the Tegra X1, the first SoC to have a graphics performance of 1 teraflop. At the announcement event, Nvidia showed off Epic Games' Unreal Engine 4 "Elemental" demo, running on a Tegra X1.
On October 20, 2016, Nvidia announced that the Nintendo Switch hybrid video game console will be powered by Tegra hardware. On March 15, 2017, TechInsights revealed the Nintendo Switch is powered by a custom Tegra X1, with lower clockspeeds.

Models

Tegra APX

; Tegra APX 2500
  • Processor: ARM11 600 MHz MPCore
  • * Suffix: APX
  • Memory: NOR or NAND flash, Mobile DDR
  • Graphics: Image processor
  • * Up to 12 megapixels camera support
  • * LCD controller supports resolutions up to 1280×1024
  • Storage: IDE for SSD
  • Video codecs: up to 720p MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 and VC-1 decoding
  • Includes GeForce ULV support for OpenGL ES 2.0, Direct3D Mobile, and programmable shaders
  • Output: HDMI, VGA, composite video, S-Video, stereo jack, USB
  • USB On-The-Go
; Tegra APX 2600
  • Enhanced NAND flash
  • Video codecs:
  • * 720p H.264 Baseline Profile encode or decode
  • * 720p VC-1/WMV9 Advanced Profile decode
  • * D-1 MPEG-4 Simple Profile encode or decode

    Tegra 6xx

; Tegra 600
  • Targeted for GPS segment and automotive
  • Processor: ARM11 700 MHz MPCore
  • Memory: low-power DDR
  • SXGA, HDMI, USB, stereo jack
  • HD camera 720p
; Tegra 650
  • Targeted for GTX of handheld and notebook
  • Processor: ARM11 800 MHz MPCore
  • Low power DDR
  • Less than 1 watt envelope
  • HD image processing for advanced digital still camera and HD camcorder functions
  • Display supports 1080p at 24 frame/s, HDMI v1.3, WSXGA+ LCD and CRT, and NTSC/PAL TV output
  • Direct support for Wi-Fi, disk drives, keyboard, mouse, and other peripherals
  • A complete board support package to enable fast time to market for Windows Mobile-based designs

    Tegra 2

The second generation Tegra SoC has a dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 CPU, an ultra low power GeForce GPU, a 32-bit memory controller with either LPDDR2-600 or DDR2-667 memory, a 32 KB/32 KB L1 cache per core and a shared 1 MB L2 cache. Tegra 2's Cortex A9 implementation does not include ARM's SIMD extension, NEON. There is a version of the Tegra 2 SoC supporting 3D displays; this SoC uses a higher clocked CPU and GPU.
The Tegra 2 video decoder is largely unchanged from the original Tegra and has limited support for HD formats. The lack of support for high-profile H.264 is particularly troublesome when using online video streaming services.
Common features:
  • CPU cache: L1: 32 KB instruction + 32 KB data, L2: 1 MB
  • 40 nm semiconductor technology

    Devices

ModelDevices
AP20HMotorola Atrix 4G, Motorola Droid X2, Motorola Photon, LG Optimus 2X / LG Optimus Dual P990 / Optimus 2x SU660, Samsung Galaxy R, Samsung Captivate Glide, T-Mobile G2X P999, Acer Iconia Tab A200 and A500, LG Optimus Pad, Motorola Xoom, Sony Tablet S, Dell Streak Pro, Toshiba Thrive tablet, T-Mobile G-Slate
AP215Fusion Garage Grid 10
T20Avionic Design Tamonten Processor Board, Notion Ink Adam tablet, Olivetti OliPad 100, ViewSonic G Tablet, ASUS Eee Pad Transformer, Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, Toshiba AC100, CompuLab Trim-Slice nettop, Velocity Micro Cruz Tablet L510, Acer Iconia Tab A100
Tesla Motors Model S 2012~2017 and Model X 2015~2017 instrument cluster

Tegra 3

NVIDIA's Tegra 3 is functionally a SoC with a quad-core ARM Cortex-A9 MPCore CPU, but includes a fifth "companion" core in what Nvidia refers to as a "variable SMP architecture". While all cores are Cortex-A9s, the companion core is manufactured with a low-power silicon process. This core operates transparently to applications and is used to reduce power consumption when processing load is minimal. The main quad-core portion of the CPU powers off in these situations.
Tegra 3 is the first Tegra release to support ARM's SIMD extension, NEON.
The GPU in Tegra 3 is an evolution of the Tegra 2 GPU, with 4 additional pixel shader units and higher clock frequency. It can also output video up to 2560×1600 resolution and supports 1080p MPEG-4 AVC/h.264 40 Mbit/s High-Profile, VC1-AP, and simpler forms of MPEG-4 such as DivX and Xvid.
The Tegra 3 was released on November 9, 2011.
Common features:
  • CPU cache: L1: 32 KB instruction + 32 KB data, L2: 1 MB
  • 40 nm LPG semiconductor technology by TSMC

    Devices

ModelDevices
AP33LG Optimus 4X HD, HTC One X, XOLO Play T1000, Coolpad 8735
T30Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime, IdeaTab K2 / LePad K2, Acer Iconia Tab A510, Fuhu Inc. nabi 2 Tablet, Microsoft Surface RT, Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 11,
T30ITesla Model S 2012~2017 and Model X 2015~2017 media control unit
T30LAsus Transformer Pad TF300T, Microsoft Surface, Nexus 7, Sony Xperia Tablet S, Acer Iconia Tab A210, Toshiba AT300, BLU Quattro 4.5, Coolpad 9070
T33Asus Transformer Pad Infinity, Fujitsu ARROWS X F-02E, HTC One X+, Ouya

Tegra 4

The Tegra 4 was announced on January 6, 2013, and is a SoC with a quad-core CPU, but includes a fifth low-power Cortex A15 companion core which is invisible to the OS and performs background tasks to save power. This power-saving configuration is referred to as "variable SMP architecture" and operates like the similar configuration in Tegra 3.
The GeForce GPU in Tegra 4 is again an evolution of its predecessors. However, numerous feature additions and efficiency improvements were implemented. The number of processing resources was dramatically increased, and clock rate increased as well. In 3D tests, the Tegra 4 GPU is typically several times faster than that of Tegra 3. Additionally, the Tegra 4 video processor has full support for hardware decoding and encoding of WebM video.
Along with Tegra 4, Nvidia also introduced i500, an optional software modem based on Nvidia's acquisition of Icera, which can be reprogrammed to support new network standards. It supports category 3 LTE but will later be updated to Category 4.
Common features:
  • CPU cache: L1: 32 KB instruction + 32 KB data, L2: 2 MB
  • 28 nm HPL semiconductor technology

    Devices

Tegra 4i

The Tegra 4i was announced on February 19, 2013. With hardware support for the same audio and video formats, but using Cortex-A9 cores instead of Cortex-A15, the Tegra 4i is a low-power variant of the Tegra 4 and is designed for phones and tablets. Unlike its Tegra 4 counterpart, the Tegra 4i also integrates the Icera i500 LTE/HSPA+ baseband processor onto the same die.
Common features:
  • 28 nm HPM semiconductor technology
  • CPU cache: L1: 32 KB instruction + 32 KB data, L2: 1 MB