Nvidia unveils Tegra 4 chip

Nvidia has officially unveiled the heavily leaked Tegra 4 micro-processing chip for smartphones and tablets

Nvidia has announced the Tegra 4 processor chip for smartphones and tablets at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

The successor to the Tegra 3, which currently powers devices like the Google Nexus 7 tablet, has the the same 4-1 arrangement, yet boasts 72 GPU core processors, offering six-times the amount of visual output its predecessor is capable of. The Tegra 4 can also power resolutions of up to 2560 x 1600 and 1080p at 120Hz.Unlike the Tegra 3, it also supports LTE connectivity.

The chip was unveiled by the senior vice president of Nvidia's Tegra arm, Phil Carmack, who talked up the chip's potential in powering current and future mobile devices.

"Tegra 4 provides enormous processing power and efficiency to power smartphones and tablets, gaming devices, auto systems and PCs, "Carmack said.

"Its new capabilities, particularly in the area of computational photography, will help improve a whole range of existing products and lead to the creation of exciting new ones."

The Tegra 4 has been shown elsewhere at CES, powering the prototype for Nvidia's Project Shield mobile gaming device.