By Tiernan Ray
As first reported this morning by my colleague, Dow Jones’s Shara Tibken, chip maker Nvidia (NVDA) has revealed that its latest mobile processor, the Tegra chip code-named “Kal-El,” will contain not just four CPU “cores,” as previously disclosed, but also a fifth core designed to lower power consumption for some tasks.
In a white paper, Nvidia says it has patented “variable symmetric multiprocessing,” whereby multiple CPU cores share the workload of a device but in an asymmetric fashion. Specifically, Nvidia has added a “companion” core that operates at a much lower frequency to handle “background” tasks that don’t require as much effort as the Tegra’s four main “performance” cores.
The difference between the four cores and the fifth is the semiconductor process used to make them, while the cores themselves are identical in terms of the logical layout and functioning of their circuits. One chip made with sections using different processes, in other words.
The benefit, says Nvidia, is that during the 80% of average usage when things such as email synchronization or Twitter updates are happening, the four main cores will not power-up, leaving the slower core to do the work, thereby reducing how much power those four cores consume. The advantage to Nvidia should be more efficient chips for mobile devices versus competitors such as Qualcomm (QCOM), writes Shara.
With Qualcomm and others announcing their intention to offer quad-core chips, the unveiling of the fifth core reminds me of the construction of the Empire State Building in the thirties, whose final tower element allowed it to surpass the Chrysler Building, then the world’s tallest, in a sudden, surprising finale.
In its “lowest power state,” says Nvidia, Kal-El could consume 28% less power than the existing Tegra 2.
Shara writes that Kal-El is expected to be in gadgets in time for the holiday season.
Nvidia shares today are down 5 cents at $15.09.