14 DAY TRIAL // The Tegra K1 (or K21 as it is sometimes known) is a curious thing, an SoC (system-on-chip) that could be used in anything from tablets to vehicles and servers. It seems that the stats of the processor have finally come out.
As a system-on-chip, the primary market for the Tegra K1 is that of tablets, maybe 2-in-1 laptops, but in-vehicle infotainment systems are a good fit too.
However, considering the power of GPU computing and the low power draw of Tegra K1 compared to existing solutions, servers might be a suitable market as well.
In fact, the chip has already been pitted against the Tesla K40 GPU, or rather a Tesla K40 GPU + CPU system configuration.
Obviously, it failed to even scratch the performance of the K40, but that wasn't the point. The point was to illustrate the energy efficiency.
And indeed, the Tegra K1 has a very good power-performance ratio. It used a bit over 11W when at full power, a situation that will rarely occur in real life.
Sure, if some server maker or other decides to make a system based on it, with a special motherboard and everything, the Tegra K1 might be used at full throttle.
Tablets, however, and even superphones are unlikely to ever push the Tegra K1 that far, so the average TDP should be of 5 to 8W. Definitely leagues away from the 45-60W that previous rumors and leaks suggested.
For those interested in the comparison, it wasn't just the Tesla K40 that the ones doing the test had to take into account. After all, the Tesla K40 is a GPU, not SoC. So the test had to compare the K1 to a computer running a CPU and the Tesla K40 in tandem.
Where the Tegra K1 (which has CPU cores and everything else of relevance) produced 326 Gflops Single Precision Peak performance on 11W and backed by 2 GB RAM, the Tesla K40 + CPU attained 4.2 TeraFlops on 385W and 12 GB RAM.
All in all, the NVIDIA Tegra K1 Jetson Development Kit looks pretty promising, even though it's taking its sweet time in reaching the market. At previous trade shows, we saw both a tablet and a phone based on it, so the chip should come out maybe around mid-year (2014). The vehicle module, or VCM for short, should debut around the same time, but will be more compact and rugged. Or maybe it will only debut as a VCM.