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Nvidia unveils its latest mobile 'superchip,' the Tegra X1

Nvidia unveils its latest mobile 'superchip,' the Tegra X1

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Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang took the stage at CES tonight to unveil its new mobile chip, the Tegra X1. With 256 processor cores and eight CPU cores, Huang touts it as the first mobile "superchip."

The X1 is the successor to last year's K1 processor, and is built atop the Maxwell architecture, which is both fast and energy-efficient. Despite tepid applause, Huang said he was most excited about what the chip can do, saying that there's nothing like it in the world. The X1 can handle 4K video at 60Hz, and is the first mobile chip to exceed 1 teraflop of throughput. The first supercomputer to exceed a teraflop did so in 2000, and needed more than 1 million watts to pull it off.

The first mobile chip to exceed 1 teraflop of throughput

The X1 is powerful, and Huang demonstrated as much by showing off a real-time demo of Unreal Tournament. However, the chips strengths are being channeled into cars. In the near term, the chip will power the new Drive CX "digital cockpit computer," a fully-functioning infotainment system that could power an array of screens inside your car that monitor speed, temperature, and entertainment. Two X1s will power the Drive PX auto-pilot system that's great for parking.