At the Consumer Electronics Show (CES (News - Alert)) 2013, NVIDIA, a provider of visual computing technology and inventor of the graphics processing unit (GPU), unveiled its NVIDIA Project SHIELD, the company’s newest Tegra 4-powered gaming console. Tegra 4 is a mobile processor that contains five core ARM Cortex A15’s with four “performance cores” running at 1.9GHz while the fifth “battery saver” core runs at a lower clock speed for maximum power savings.
BSN* caught up with Nick Stam, director of technical marketing, NVIDIA, after the show to talk about the announcements, including the external LTE part of Tegra 4 called the Icera (News - Alert) i500.
NVIDIA’s Icera i500 is a soft modem that NVIDIA claims to be very low power due to being significantly smaller than conventional modems in terms of die size. This is possible because of the fact that it is built on TSMC’s 28nm HP process, which is supposed to enable low power consumption and smaller dies. The i500 is made up of 8 individual cores which are supposed to drive the soft modem and can be individually gated to save power.
This modem will initially be a category 3 LTE modem, which makes it capable of a maximum of 100 Mbps downlink. Later on, NVIDIA will release a software update, which will upgrade it to a category 4 LTE modem, enabling downlink speeds of up to 150 Mbps. VoLTE has been part of Icera’s capabilities in the past, in partnership with D2 Technologies.
Image via Fareastgizmos
Last year, D2 Technologies, a provider of software that power IP communications for devices used in converged communications applications and markets, worked with NVIDIA to develop seamless handover of voice calls from an LTE network to a circuit-switched WCDMA 3G network, and vice versa, using Single Radio Voice Call Continuity (SRVCC) with HD voice-quality (known as AMR-WB or Adaptive Multi Rate-Wideband).
The combination of NVIDIA’s state-of-the-art Icera 410 LTE modem with D2’s mCUE 4G, a converged 4G mobile communications client for VoLTE and rich communications (RCS) video calling, yielded a complete solution with SRVCC capability. This technology enables handset OEMs to give consumers a seamless voice experience, regardless of network type.
mCUE enables service providers, OEMs and ODMs to quickly and economically meet the demand of today’s converged communications through its platform-optimized embedded media engine for VoIP and IP video calling, multi-IM chat support, wideband CODECs for high definition voice and native support for Skype IM, voice and video calls, all delivered via the broadest range of 4G wireless (WiFi, WiMAX (News - Alert), LTE, etc.) and high-speed wired broadband (xDSL, Cable, xPON, etc.) networks.
The solution was also the first IP communications client to be deployed by a 4G mobile operator. mCUE 4G is the most advanced embedded IMS IP communications software solution for the Android (News - Alert) OS platform, supporting both the IR.92 VoLTE and RCS/RCS-e GSMA standards to deliver features like HD voice, real-time video call, instant message, presence, SMS-over-IP and VCC/CSFB on 4G mobile networks.
“Although the industry is making great strides toward the global adoption of 4G LTE, it will be some time before 4G coverage surpasses current 2G/3G coverage,” noted Doug Makishima, chief operating officer, D2 Technologies, in a statement. “Our joint VoLTE SRVCC solution with NVIDIA enables 4G mobile devices to provide seamless voice service across 4G LTE and 3G/2G legacy networks -- giving operators time to build out LTE networks while continuing to leverage their existing networks.”
To learn more about D2 Technologies, visit www.d2tech.com
Want to learn more about the latest in communications and technology? Then be sure to attend ITEXPO Miami 2013, Jan 29- Feb. 1 in Miami, Florida. Visit D2 Technologies’ Chief Operating Officer Doug Makishima in his session, “Creating an Unbeatable Mobile UC Experience.” Stay in touch with everything happening at ITEXPO (News - Alert). Follow us on Twitter.
Edited by Amanda Ciccatelli