NVIDIA helped validate some leaks regarding its future Tegra roadmap in a presentation at HTC's Freqs event in Seattle on Thursday. Along with the known Wayne, its codename for Tegra 4, it also mentioned a Tegra 3+. What it would entail wasn't mentioned, but the name implied a clock speed boost or other minor updates that wouldn't fundamentally rework the quad-core ARM Cortex-A9 chip.
ZTE braced its two LTE phones with one comparatively advanced 3G modem that marked a first for NVIDIA. The Mimosa X shares the 4.3-inch, 540x960 display and Android 4.0 of the N910, but uses both NVIDIA's Tegra 2 dual-core processor and its recent acquisition Icera's HSPA+ chipset. Although it officially peaks at 21Mbps, the 3G hardware has interference reduction that reportedly improves speed at the fringe of the network.
NVIDIA made the leap into making its own complete mobile chipsets on Monday with a deal to buy Icera for $367 million. The mutual agreement gives it access to cellular baseband chips for 3G and 4G phones and tablets. NVIDIA expected to become a one-stop shop for mobile makers who could get the main processor and its cellular link from the same company, both speeding up launch times and roughly double NVIDIA's cash from each sale.
