NVIDEA affirms Quad Core Tegra fourth quarter release

Quad Core Tegra processors will arrive on the market using 4th Quarter this year, according to a statement this month made by  NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang. In spite of horrific numbers posted by non-Apple iPad tablet makers, Huang estimates the current consumer market for ultra-mobile CPUs at 100 million units. By taking the lead in the race toward quad-core, NVIDEA looks like it has a lot to gain in the near future. In fact, Huang believes that his company will be selling in the $5 billion range by 2013 and the $20 billion range by 2015.

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Rapid growth fueled by Tegra

This exciting growth prediction for NVIDIA depends on a mobile demand that remains unaffected by anticipated offerings by Intel, Texas Instruments and AMD. In the short-term, Huang’s estimates will likely pan out. After all, AMD and Intel have yet to release their first smartphone or tablet processor, leaving them far behind the 8-ball. NVIDEA has perfected its system-on-a-chip technology and now sees only Qualcomm and its Snapdragon SoC as a worthy competitor.

As the market now stands, NVIDIA’s position seems enviable. With its Tegra and Tegra 2 chips already powering nearly three-quarters of non-Intel tablets, that company will achieve almost total dominance when it unveils its Tegra 4. That processing power should spillover into the smartphone market, providing Huang’s company with even more gains.

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Cautious over-confidence

An over-reliance on Tegra could come back to bite the maker of GeForce card graphics. Already leaving its NVIDEA graphics card division treading water, the company could shoot itself in the foot by including the power of its NVIDEA graphic cards inside the Tegra SoC products. Also, other initiatives such as its purchase of Icera and venture into the 4G modem market can leave the company’s isolated card graphics division in a state of perpetual decline.

Should a strong competitor to the NVIDEA Tegra processor family emerge, the company could be left in no certain state. However, we applaud Huang for the way he has transformed his card graphics company into a major global player in the mobile device market.