NVIDIA introduces Tegra X1: a mobile superchip with 256 GPU cores

This evening, NVIDIA held its press conference for CES 2015 to announce the new Tegra X1 mobile superchip. The processor contains various components that make it a powerhouse. Alongside the eight-core 64-bit CPU are 256 cores for the GPU. It supports 4K video at 60Hz.

The Tegra X1 is based on the Maxwell architecture that was announced only four months ago. This is down from the two years it took NVIDIA to transfer Kepler architecture, its predecessor, over to mobile in the form of Tegra K1.

The new mobile superchip remains energy efficient despite its cutting edge performance. NVIDIA showcased its strength and efficiency by running a demo of Unreal Engine’s Elemental. The engine is equal to what is found in high-end PCs and today’s gaming consoles.

NVIDIA compared Tegra X1 with Tegra K1 and Apple’s A8 and found there to be little competition. Tegra X1 performs better than both, NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang explained, by blowing the A8 “out of the water.”

Hit the break for more.

The company also further inserted itself into the automobile industry with the digitial dashboard/cockpit platform DRIVE CX. It allows multiple operating systems to have control over the different displays located in a vehicle. Quite literally, NVIDIA is expecting everything in a car to evolve into displays and cameras.

Android Auto is integrated into DRIVE CX. The visual platform is powered by Tegra X1 and software NVIDIA calls DRIVE Studio. The entire collection of inputs for the mobile supercomputer in a car is known as DRIVE PX. It performs real-time image processing and recording so that the vehicle can have accurate information instantly.

Click here for our CES 2015 coverage.

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