Graphics card and mobile processor maker Nvidia has flexed its processing muscles by showcasing its next-generation mobile processor’s performance at the 40th International conference and exhibition on computer graphics and interactive techniques (Siggraph 2013).  

Back in March, Nvidia already provided a glimpse into its mobile system-on-a-chip (SoC) future, when the company revealed that Logan and Parker will be following in the footsteps of the Tegra 4 and Tegra 4i.

Logan’s graphical claws emerge

Project Logan (Tegra 5) will pair ARM-based mobile processor cores with Nvidia’s powerful Kepler-based GPUs. This means that graphics card tech that is currently being used within high-performance PCs and workstations including PhysX, as well as CUDA 5, will be making its way onto tablets and smartphones in the not too distant future.

Nvidia stated that mobile Kepler uses less than a third of the power of GPUs in leading tablets such as the iPad 4, while performing the same rendering tasks. This chip supports Microsoft’s newest graphics API in DirectX 11, OpenGL 4.3 full-featured graphics specification, and the OpenGL ES 3.0 embedded standard.

All this means is the SoC is capable of graphical features the likes of tessellation, advanced physics simulation and lighting, which Nvidia demonstrates in the two videos posted below.

Gazing deeper into the future, beyond Logan

Project Parker (Tegra 6) will merge new 64-bit ARM compatible CPU cores with Nvidia’s next-generation Maxwell GPU architecture. This will provide the SoC with the ability to process huge chunks of data just like a server, and combine this with the Maxwell architecture’s capability to swap out memory resources with CPUs.

To the point

According to Nvidia, Project Logan is as big a tech milestone for mobile devices as the company’s very first graphics processing unit, the Nvidia GeForce 256, was for the PC industry when it was introduced 14 years ago.

This, as the SoC aims to make consol- and even PC level graphics available within tablets, phablets and smartphones. We for one, can’t wait to experience this new chapter of mobile gaming to kick off.

In other SoC related news, Samsung recently unveiled the newest edition to its Exynos range of mobile processors in the Exynos 5420.