GDC or the Game Developers Conference was the venue where NVidia announced its 4K Android TV console called the Shield console.

The console is powered by the company’s own Tegra X1 chip that was announced earlier this year at CES and features 3GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage (expandable using a microSD card). NVidia also bundles the device with its own controller and an optional Bluetooth remote control that allows users to issue voice commands.

Naturally, the Shield console is able to access various Google services including YouTube and Google Play. Moreover, the device can connect to NVidia’s GRID on-demand game service that allows gamers to stream their favorite titles from the company’s servers.

Ports-wise, the console features a couple of USB ports, an Ethernet port as well as display and HDMI ports making it easy to connect any type of display into the device. The console is also capable of delivering 4K content in contrast to its competitors.

The NVidia Shield console will be available in May for around $199.

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The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is now in full swing in Las Vegas and there are already a number of brands that have announced their current projects for the world to see. NVIDIA is one of the companies that made the biggest announcement today with its new Tegra X1 super chip and Drive CX platform for cars.

The Tegra X1 is the company’s newest mobile processor for 2015 and is said to be capable of achieving 1 teraflop of floating point performance, which basically means that it can match the performance of desktop GPUs and current generation gaming consoles. The chip features a new octa-core CPU comprising of four Cortex A57 and four Cortex A53 cores.

The chip uses the company’s current Maxwell GPU architecture featuring 256 CUDA cores, which offer twice the power as the Kepler-based K1 from last year. Moreover, the X1 comes with a 64-bit wide LPDDR4 memory, support for 4K resolution, and support for all major graphic standards. These include Unreal Engine 4, DirectX 12, OpenGL 4.5, CUDA, OpenGL ES 3.1 and the Android Extension pack.

On a related note, NVIDIA plans to use the X1 on various applications including on automobiles through its Drive CX platform. This will use two X1 processors and 12 onboard cameras to provide a multitude of features including automatic parking, various infotainment functions and even driver monitoring.

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Nvidia might just have created a solution for low-budget devices to have the high-resolution displays found in more expensive devices.

Dubbed as Cascaded display, the technology uses two layers of LCD panels stacked on top of one another to increase the number of pixels in a given area. The panels are positioned on a slight offset and corrected by a filter for any polarization conflicts.

Software is also used in order for the two panels to work in sync. According to Nvidia’s tests, the displays are able to increase the spatial resolution of the original HD panels up to four times and yet it is still less expensive to make than traditional 4K panels.

The resulting image from the display panels aren’t as good as the target resolution but it’s better than the traditional single layer panel. Nvidia plans to use the technology in head mounted displays such as those on the Oculus Rift.

The technology is still in the testing phase but if proven successful, it can mean cheaper yet high-res mobile devices in the future.

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Nvidia’s next Shield device might be arriving sooner than most of us have expected.

According to a leaked internal slide presentation the tablet will have an Nvidia Tegra K1 mobile chipset as well as an 8-inch display with a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels. The tablet will also sport a stylus just like the company’s first generation tablet – the Tegra Note, although the stylus in the Shield tablet offers slightly advanced features and capabilities.

The tablet also comes with two 5MP cameras at the back and on the front as well as a set of front-facing stereo speakers. There’s also GPS and Wi-Fi MIMO in the connectivity department. Nvidia will also be offering a 3G/LTE version that will be compatible with AT&T’s and T-Mobile’s network in the US.

Lastly, the Shield slate will also have a either a 16GB or 32GB internal storage.

As for pricing and availability, Nvidia will reportedly offer the Shield tablet initially in the US & Canada at $300 for the 16GB Wi-Fi only version and around $400 for the 32GB LTE version. An optional game controller will also be offered as a companion device for the Shield tablet with its own rechargeable Li-ion battery. UPDATED: Nvidia just made the Shield Tablet official. Just like the leaks suggested, the slate will have a Tegra K1 chip comprised of a 2.2GHz dual-core A15 CPU, a 192-core Kepler GPU and either 16GB or 32GB of on-board storage. The tablet will cost $299 for the 16GB version while the bigger 32GB model will be offered at $399.  
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Chipmaker Nvidia is reportedly working on a compact tablet that will bear the “Shield” branding.

According to a document filed at the Global Certification Forume or GCF (a specific body that provides certification for companies that manufactures products with 3G technologies) the slate will be marketed as the SHIELD tablet.

Previous rumours have indicated that the tablet might have a 7.9-inch display with the company’s new Tegra K1 processor. And unlike Nvidia’s current slate, the Tegra Note 7, the Shield tablet will most likely be targeting gamers. In fact, there have been speculations that Nvidia will bundle the tablet with gaming accessories similar to those of Razer’s Edge.

At the moment, there’s very little information about this alleged Shield Tablet but there's already a placeholder in Nvidia's TegraZone webpage, so we’ll just have to wait and see for more announcements from Nvidia.

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Earlier this year Google’s ATAP (Advanced Technology and Project Group) announced a prototype smartphone that features an array of sensors that allows it to create a 3D map of its environment. This week, the same folks who brought us the 3D mapping phone is bringing the technology into a tablet.

On the hardware side, the tablet seems to be a beefed up Tegra Note 7. It has a 1080p display and runs on a stock version of Android 4.4 KitKat. Under the hood is an Nvidia Tegra K1 chip, 4GB of RAM and 128GB of non-expandable storage. There’s a USB 3.0 port, micro-HDMI, Bluetooth LE and LTE connectivity.

Just like its phone counterpart, the tablet features two cameras. The first camera has a 4MP sensor with two-micron pixels that are very sensitive to light, while the other camera tracks motion with a 170-degree wide-angle fisheye lens. There’s also a depth sensor at the back.

The tablet is expected to go on pre-order this month for around $1,024 on an invite basis much like what Google did on Glass when it was first offered.

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Nvidia’s GPU Technology Conference kicked off today at San Jose, California where the graphics card maker unveiled its newest as well as its upcoming products for the world to see.

First on the list is Nvidia’s next-generation GPU called Pascal. According to the company’s CEO Jen-Hsun Huang, this GPU will be smaller, faster and more efficient thanks to three new features – stacked DRAM, unified memory and the company’s NVLink.

Stacked DRAM should allow Pascal chips to be more compact without compromising power giving the company’s GPU with greater bandwidth, more than twice the memory capacity and nearly 4x energy efficiency. Meanwhile, its Unified Memory feature should help in allowing the CPU to access the GPU’s memory and vice versa in order to eliminate the need for developers to split resources between the CPU and GPU memory (similar to AMD’s Project Mantle).

Then there’s NVLink, which was designed to improve the communication speed between the CPU and GPU allowing data to flow between the components at a faster rate (around 80GB per second) compared to current GPUs in the market that transfers data at a rate of 16GB per second.

However, those who plan to get Nvidia’s Pascal GPUs would have to wait until 2016 when the chips will be available.

Also on Nvidia’s plate at the event was the GTX Titan Z, the company’s GPU powerhouse that sports dual Kepler GPUs and 12GB of dedicated memory. The graphics card can support up to 5K resolution on multiple motors provides performance close to that of a supercomputer.

Other details about the Titan Z (see also the Nvidia Titan Black) are yet to be released but pricing is to start at $3000 (Jaw drop alert!).

And then there’s the Jetson TK1 dev kit – a Tegra K1-based chip that uses the same technology found on the company’s Titan supercomputer.

Nvidia claims the Jetson TK1 is the world tiniest supercomputer and is capable of pushing up to 326 gigaflops of computing power. The kit will include a Tegra K1 SoC (with a Kepler GPU and an ARM Cortex-A15 CPU), 2GB of memory, 16GB eMMC, Gigabit Ethernet, SUB 3.0, SD/MMC, miniPCIe, HDMI 1.4, SATA, and expansion ports for additional display/GPIOs/high-bandwidth camera interface.

The dev kit is now available for pre-order on Nvidia’s website for $192.

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