From PC World: Nvidia's Tegra 4i processor, the first of its chips with integrated support for LTE cellular data, is on course to appear in products early next year, the company's CEO said Thursday.
The Tegra 4i is smaller than the current Tegra 4 and aimed at mainstream, midmarket phones. Despite its integrated LTE modem, it's not as powerful as the Tegra 4, which is aimed at high-end phones and devices such as tablets and gaming handhelds.
Speaking to reporters and analysts on a conference call, CEO Jen Hsun Huang said the Tegra 4i has been certified by AT&T, the number-two wireless carrier in the U.S., and that products should be appearing soon.
"We are excited about that," he said of the AT&T certification. Nvidia expects the first products with the chip to be announced in the first quarter of 2014 and to ship sometime in the second quarter.
However, he left the door open to confusion by adding that the rollout "will likely be global, but not U.S."
"You really need to have CDMA in the U.S. to be successful, so we're not targeting the U.S. with respect to phones," Huang said. "We're targeting outside of the U.S."
A spokesperson for Nvidia declined to clarify the CEO's remarks.
AT&T's network isn't based on CDMA, so it could still offer phones or tablets running the new chip. Huang may have meant the impact of Tegra 4i phones will be limited in the U.S. because of their incompatibility with the networks of Verizon and Sprint.
He didn't give a detailed timeframe for the devices, but it's likely some will be unveiled at January's International CES in Las Vegas or February's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
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