Today, NVIDIA announced the first NVIDIA SoC with an integrated digital baseband modem. The Tegra 4i integrates the Icera i500 modem on-die, hence i for Icera. NVIDIA says the chip won’t be available for a year. It will support 8 primary bands and both 2×2 MIMO and 4×4 MIMO transmission modes on LTE.
Anantech has a bunch of information about this SoC. It’s the result of NVIDIA’s acquisition of soft-modem manufacturer Icera. NVidia says the Tegra 4i features five times the number of GPU cores of Tegra 3 for high-quality, console-quality gaming experiences and full 1080p HD displays.
Functionally Tegra 4i is more like an upgraded Tegra 3 than a Tegra 4. It uses the less sophisticated Cortex A9s rather than the Cortex A-15 of the currently available Tegra 4. Tegra 4i is aimed more at the smartphone market while the non-integrated Tegra 4 aims at tablets or other platforms with a higher power budget and greater performance demands.
NVIDIA expects the first Tegra 4i designs to begin shipping at the end of 2013, with most devices appearing in Q1 of 2014.
