NVIDIA Tegra Architecture

[Ailuros]

Topic is about Tegra. Please remember me what is inside Nexus 7 ?

and what irony that YOU talk about stopping bashing

Yes you're right I shouldn't beat a dead horse in the first place, exactly because it's a moot point.

Only Nvidia bashing is allowed in the thread! Please abide by the rules otherwise you'll be called a troll!

(The trolling argument gets to be used a little too easy for what is just a minor disagreement, TBH.)

A witless joke and a sorry edit attempt to replace the devil's advocate or whatever role you want to play. This isn't even a comedy but rather an aweful farce I simply shouldn't be part of not now, but a long time ago. B3D has just become a place that's way too good for someone like me.

 

[silent_guy]

Ail, just listen to yourself...

 

[Blazkowicz]

Meh, the smartphone I most used (a friend's one) works fine and has Android 2.3, it's an older high end beast with 5" 1280x800 display. I didn't mess with it in the way of adding an ssh client, shell prompt etc.

The biggest problem was (trivial flash-like) free games come with spyware/bundleware. Or my friend wanted to use the google app to record trips with the GPS, but it asked to be tied into either of two of his google e-mail addresses, which we refused. So the phone is in a pretty bland state anyway with few apps, it does browsing and maps fine, or rather brilliantly. I guess I suck at browsing the apps store for games, finding something is hard when you don't know what to look for (browsing the Steam store on a desktop is easier for example)

So feel free to flame about trivial things. And xpea, since you seem to know so much about those things why not do a manual trim from a root prompt or schedule it for next boot (I don't know if Android 4.x can do that, even with a 3rd party tool, but it would be a good test to know if these shinies are capable computers)

 

[ams]

Nice close up hands on demo of the Wiko Wax smartphone: http://youtu.be/5eqfgjT9wDY

On a side note, the Tegra Note 7 LTE has a redesigned chassis with better build quality and smoother and cleaner back cover: http://youtu.be/iCKAcQcj32M

 

[DSC]

https://developer.nvidia.com/content/nvidia-gameworks-announcing-tegra-graphics-debugger-10

 

[DSC]

http://reviews.cnet.com/coupe-hatchback/2015-lamborghini-huracan-lp/4505-10867_7-35835324.html

http://www.geek.com/chips/lamborghi...with-12-3-inch-tegra-powered-display-1586686/

Congrats to Nvidia on the design win.

 

[Mariner]

Not exactly a high-volume design win!

However, if it works out well for them, it could be a doorway to selling tech into lots and lots of other cars in the VW group.

 

[Blazkowicz]

If you hack that car dash you will be able to run a racing game on it.

It's even better if the car is drive-by-wire and you hook up the steering wheel, pedals etc. as well as use the car stereo for sound output. It will be safer than driving the actual car.

 

[Wynix]

http://reviews.cnet.com/coupe-hatchback/2015-lamborghini-huracan-lp/4505-10867_7-35835324.html

http://www.geek.com/chips/lamborghi...with-12-3-inch-tegra-powered-display-1586686/

Congrats to Nvidia on the design win.

Old chip in a new and super expensive card? did Nvidia donate left over stock?

 

[Alexko]

Old chip in a new and super expensive card? did Nvidia donate left over stock?

My guess is that it's hard to get a new chip into a car for scheduling reasons.

 

[PixResearch]

It's probably tricky to get any sort of bleeding edge chips into cars purely on safety grounds. Tegra 3 is fairly modern on car maker timescales...

It's always going to be easier for the manufacturer to pick a slightly older chip that's better tested/understood than push it for the very latest chip. The relatively small increment in features isn't worth the increased risk for anything safety critical like a dashboard. Recalls are expensive and while you can just turn a computer/phone off and on again a dashboard is one of those things you really don't want to lock up/glitch.

 

[Blazkowicz]

The thing displays digits, needles and a map. So for these uses a Tegra 3 is like a fucking Core i7 with eDRAM die already.

It also has PCI express lanes to inferface with a CAN bus or whatever the car uses and that seems lower overhead / lower latency / cleaner that stuff hanging of a USB port. I mean you have no USB controller and stack between the sensors etc. and the virtual speedometer, that's one thing less to validate/certifiy etc. (if it is so). But probably user input is on USB. And not sharing a single USB with the critical stuff.

 

[silent_guy]

Old chip in a new and super expensive card? did Nvidia donate left over stock?

By automotive standards, a 3yo (?) chip is very advanced technology.

We've discussed this here before: the amount of technical qualifications this kind of stuff needs to go through before it gets accepted by car component makers (such as Bosch) is staggering. SW can not crash ever. Needs to work at extreme temperature ranges in a hostile electrical environment etc. It wouldn't surprise me one bit if this was a special fab SKU.

And that's before it gets designed in by the car makers.

Things take a long time...

 

[DSC]

http://nvidianews.nvidia.com/Releases/Audi-and-NVIDIA-Expand-Visual-Computing-in-the-Car-a90.aspx

Audi also launched a new category of mobile device, known as a Smart Display. This multimedia computer powered by a Tegra 4 processor is designed for rear-seat use, yet seamlessly integrates with the car's audio and video systems. It has been hardened to withstand a wide range of operational conditions, from -40 degrees Celsius to 80 degrees Celsius, and to withstand the shocks and vibrations that driving conditions can present.

Additionally, Audi unveiled a new, fully digital instrument cluster, powered by Tegra 3. The virtual cockpit -- which will first appear in the 2015 Audi TT sports coupe -- delivers clearly presented information to the driver on a 12.3-inch, high-definition display.

It's not your normal Tegra 3. I'm guessing Tegra K1 automotive grade will get the same hardening.

Today, there are more than 4.5 million cars on the road powered by NVIDIA processors, including the newest models from Audi, Volkswagen, Skoda, and SEAT.

Nvidia already sold millions of automotive grade, hardened Tegras.

 

[Blazkowicz]

I remember about the fighter jet that has a Quadro2 Go, i.e. Geforce2 MX. Not terribly exciting, not latest gen (it was a bit less old than Tegra 3 back then, but no pixel shaders and only two pixel pipelines).
I gets the job done though, and rather seemed overkill to draw a high res fake horizon and what not.

 

[Blazkowicz]

It's not your normal Tegra 3.

Is it? that must mean the packaging is slightly different, testing is more rigorous and that's it.

 

[wco81]

So Nvidia is trying to sell SOCs to car makers for these "smart" screens.

Looks like Apple is going with dumb screens for CarPlay. Limited number of makes for 2014 but a lot of high volume car makers such as Honda, Toyota, GM and Ford have signed up, in addition to the prestigious marques like Mercedes and Ferrari:

https://www.apple.com/ios/carplay/

 

[silent_guy]

So Nvidia is trying to sell SOCs to car makers for these "smart" screens. Looks like Apple is going with dumb screens for CarPlay. Limited number of makes for 2014 but a lot of high volume car makers such as Honda, Toyota, GM and Ford have signed up, in addition to the prestigious marques like Mercedes and Ferrari: https://www.apple.com/ios/carplay/

AFAIK CarPlay screens are not running iOS. (I hope so, the Mercedes version looks hideous.) Apple must have defined an API of some sort (Bluetooth?) to interact with them. And Ford has just announced dropping Windows for QNX for their dashboard computers.

That may make them a dumber screen, but it still requires some kind of SOC to run it. Not only that, for those who are not using iOS devices, that smarts will still need to come from the on-board SOC. So as long as Apple doesn't create its own embedded car HW, I don't think there's an issue. Quite the contrary in fact.

 

[Alexko]

By automotive standards, a 3yo (?) chip is very advanced technology.

We've discussed this here before: the amount of technical qualifications this kind of stuff needs to go through before it gets accepted by car component makers (such as Bosch) is staggering. SW can not crash ever. Needs to work at extreme temperature ranges in a hostile electrical environment etc. It wouldn't surprise me one bit if this was a special fab SKU.

And that's before it gets designed in by the car makers.

Things take a long time...

According to CNET, it's a Tegra 30, which sounds standard.

 

[Blazkowicz]

Bog standard stuff tends to be debugged to hell, has had revisions to fix hardware bugs and those let in silicon can be worked around or their triggering avoided.
e.g. bottom-of-the-barrel motherboards are highly reliable, unless you pull too much electric load (which Intel has even made pretty impossible by disabling OC and having lowish power use on high end chips)