Nvidia Announces Icera 500 - The Baseband in Grey
by Brian Klug on May 24, 2012 4:27 PM ESTDuring Nvidia's Tegra analyst day, more details were disclosed about both Nvidia's plans for Icera, and the upcoming codename Grey SoC with Icera inside. Earlier today we talked about how Icera 410 had been validated for use on AT&T's LTE and HSPA network, which itself is an exciting step towards a complete Nvidia solution. Nvidia just announced their upcoming Icera baseband, Icera 500, which is an LTE UE Category 3 device (building on 410 which is UE Category 2) and includes HSPA+ and other features from Icera 450. Because Icera's architecture is a software defined radio, it was hinted we might even see beyond UE Category 3 in the future. We'll have to wait and see for further details about what other capabilities Icera 500 brings.
“NVIDIA’s second-generation LTE modem – the Icera 500 chipset - addresses high end smartphones as well as tablets and clamshell devices, and provides worldwide LTE support. We expect to see the Icera 500 modem in devices in 2013.”
Nvidia expects Icera 500 to appear in devices by the end of this year, and Grey will appear with Icera 500 directly integrated later in 2013. This will enable Tegra to drive into lower cost platforms and smaller form factors in a way that only a few other SoC players can.
Nvidia is rapidly putting all the pieces together for delivering a complete solution with both their own SoC and baseband. Grey will definitely be a part to keep a watchful eye for.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
16 Comments
View All Comments
TheJian - Saturday, May 26, 2012 - link
Wrong. You're forgetting that because of the resolution of the ipad3 (whatever) it has to be a good 2x faster than the next guy just to get the same stuff on the screen.Actually if you look at the non-synthetic benchmarks and actual games, you'll see you're incorrect. The graphics on games that run on ios & tegra are better on TEGRA. Sorry, look at them all on youtube/ google etc (or here, the reviews don't lie, tegra looks great in game). Apple so far isn't investing anything in helping developers. Nvidia is building an ecosystem just as they have on the desktop. Apple is making a mistake in not helping devs as much as Nvidia. At some point all the great looking games will be in tegrazone and not ios appstore.
Witness this site's conclusions of Tegra3 vs. Ipad3.
"Is it physically possible to have the same experience on iOS? Quite possibly. What we're seeing here is a mobile representation of what NVIDIA has done in the PC industry for years. By lending its support to smaller Android developers, their games are made prettier on NVIDIA hardware, and in turn NVIDIA helps promote those games via Tegra Zone and other channels. Obviously Apple could do the same, but thus far it hasn't needed to."
More:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/5688/apple-ipad-2012...
The title of that page?
"Gaming Conclusion & Controller Support: An Android Advantage".
Anandtech thinks you're wrong. While it looks like Tegra 3 is aiming at console quality gaming, Apple looks like they're content to just have $1.99 games be the bar. They spend nothing on developers and instead choose to keep all the money. People will flock to better games. Right now it's not a huge issue as there are not that many games for either side. But once tegra has a good 100 titles that are console like, Apple will have problems if they're still not paying people to develop games that LOOK as good as tegra. Eventually people will find a device that can replace their console TOTALLY with great graphics/control support and is a smartphone. Apple won't look so shiny at that point no matter the hardware. For parents it will be about saving the $300-600 on the next console. Heck, it will be subsidized in the phone. It will basically be a free console for parents. Apple killed rimm by gaining what they had (enterprise mail) and adding something they didn't have (games). Nvidia is making the same move, but just with adding a console basically instead of just plain games.
Apple can stop this any time they please of course. But if they choose not to, the android gaming ecosystem could easily temp some paying parent from buying an iphone6/iphone7 for their kid for xmas 2014 or whatever. Actually I think 2013 xmas smartphones will equal or surpass x360 easily and consoles will be dead. Enough will switch that it's not worth buying a console, and in turn not worth writing for one either. It already looks like this is happening, the next hardware is already being complained about by EPIC. They are trying to get them all to choose MORE POWERFUL hardware but it seems we'll get cutdowns from here on out. Since consoles sit in stone for 10yrs this race is already over. Phones rev every 6 months to a year and will blow by consoles in a few years tops. IF you have controllers, and the same game power what good would a console be? Whoever woos devs the most will win this war probably. You stand the best chance of winning by killing the console with your new phone product. Smartphone killed the console star. :)
There's obviously room for ios and android as the pie is still growing and there's enough profits to go around for years as they cannibalize other devices (notably consoles for now, enterprise mail last round with Rimm). Rimm should have added games and an appstore the second Apple mentioned the first IOS game (crap game or not). They wouldn't be in the same boat if games and more apps etc were there. They kept their nose in the air with enterprise crap thinking it would pay forever. But once everyone has it you're not special any more. Then it becomes who's got something everyone else doesn't have.
TheJian - Saturday, May 26, 2012 - link
Something I forgot to mention: A5X is just over 2x the size of Tegra3. All Nvidia needs to do is double the graphics cores and increase memory to dual channel and they'll have retina too. And all their games will still look better (well, even better than better?...LOL) than IOS. Note fps is about the same on both according to GAMES tested by Anand. But so far look better on NV. I'm not sure how you get to ipad3 putting tegra 3 gpu to shame knowing you're on Anandtech and had to have read their ipad3 review. Tegra 3 is worth getting NOW according to Anandtech if you're after games (which I'm assuming you're talking about when keying on the GPU).Myself I hope Apple waits too long and ends up losing a bunch of market share forcing them to blow their 100bil, which in turn hopefully will give others a chance to get some good profits. They're abusing their market position with all the lawsuits etc and need to be stopped.
If they were smart, they'd spend a Billion over the next few years on game. You can make a good game for a console for $10-20mil easy. That's 50-100 triple A titles. You could easily make your iphone6 kill consoles for good. Ideally I'd like to see them do this just after they get some market share crushed by androids gaming. That's assuming Nvidia is able to keep funding good games, GOOGLE should pitch in and force this, as games could really set them apart from Apple and take over the console market. I think Qcom/Arm could get this going also. Any one of these 5 companies could choose to kill the next console by going after gaming.
No fanboy here. I don't own a smartphone and don't plan to buy until I see the phone that will kill the console for GOOD! Also I own an AMD 5850, no Nvidia card for now. Any of these 5 soc companies can do what I'm saying. They all have capable graphics that are about the same. But I won't lie about hating Apple these days (I owned a //E way back). I hate litigators and patent trolls. Prior art says Apples patents should be thrown own (no matter if nobody else got the patent first...They didn't think there was a reason because of so much prior art). Buttons shouldn't be features, nor should colors of anything on screen other than your stupid company logo. I had green buttons first, so you can't. WTF? Get out of our country moron. You shouldn't be able to patent a button, shape, color or gesture (or the dumb bounce at the bottom...all stupid). So stupid.
I loved apple from 12-16 or so. But just over 40yrs, I want them to die. :) They're hurting a lot of companies either through litigation, or just buying power plain and simple (hoarding all the ram etc at times, halting other products introductions for a time etc). Don't get me wrong, they're running a good business and taking advantage of everything the govt lets them. I think the same of bill gates and MS. But I'd still like their companies to get run over due to the crap they've foisted on us (winME, Vista, Win8...JEEZ...Proprietary is Apple's middle name). He had the power to tell Hollywood etc to stick it, and instead he's still selling us out.
shaolin95 - Friday, May 25, 2012 - link
I agree. NVIDIA needs to get this going because if more games keep having Tegra only features I want to have a Tegra but I hate getting something that is already outclassed :\name99 - Saturday, May 26, 2012 - link
"Because Icera's architecture is a software defined radio,"Hmm. I'd like to see this clarified. There are many things one could call a SW define radio, and I suspect (for power reasons if nothing else) that nVidia is way way on the uninteresting and not new side of this spectrum.
At the most dramatic level, this means we have a radio where the actual analog signal is being generated as a digital waveform --- no need for capacitors, inductors and the rest of it to heterodyne it up to 1.8GHz or whatever the target frequency is. I don't believe nV have this.
At the next most dramatic level, we have a collection of fairly generic DSP capabilities which can be mixed and matched to perform all the digital work --- the OFDM, the FEC, the security. If this is the case, the chip would presumably also be able to do WiFi. I don't believe nV have this.
At the mundane level, we have a collection of not particularly generic DSP capabilities, chosen precisely because they're what's needed for LTE and HSPA, and sequenced by software. I'm unsure why this is a big deal --- consider for example pretty much any WiFi system, which has the PHY in hardware and the MAC in software, sequencing what's going on. This is what I expect nV have. So what's especially noteworthy about their "software defined radio" claim?
I'm prepared to be wrong, or surprised, or impressed by this --- I don't follow the low-level details of these chips closely. But from a big picture point of view, I'm just not aware that we're at the point where we can do radio very differently from the way we've done it for the past fifteen years.
sunsineda - Wednesday, May 30, 2012 - link
El iPhone iPod classic Kit de cargadorCuernos Negros de energía 2000mAh COMBO Kit de cargador para el iPod iPhone
sunsineda - Wednesday, May 30, 2012 - link
El iPhone iPod classic Kit de cargadorCuernos Negros de energía 2000mAh COMBO Kit de cargador para el iPod iPhone
http://me2.do/IFPdEtE
Especificaciones generalesmarcaCuernos negrocolorblancoentradaAC 110-240V 50/60 Hz DC 12-24VsalidaDC 5Vcapacidad2000mAhfunciónde carga para tu iPhone, iPodcompatibilidadiPod, iPhonecaracterísticasCargador multifuncional para iPod, iPhone.