NVIDIA may not be making smartphone chips anymore, but the company is still producing low-power, high-performance computing platforms. The recently launched Nintendo Switch game console is powered by an NVIDIA processor, and NVIDIA continues to push its solutions for enterprise products including automotive and industrial solutions.
A few years ago the company launched the Jetson TX1 system-on-a-module to help developers build products around the company’s Tegra X1 processor.
Now NVIDIA is introducing the Jetson TX2 board, which features a higher-performance processor that had previously been codenamed “Parker.”
NVIDIA says the Jetson TX2 can either offer twice the performance of the older model… or twice the power efficiency.
That means you have a choice of:
- Running the Jetson TX2 at 7.5 watts and offering performance that’s on par with its 10W predecessor
- Running at 15W for 2X the performance
The Jetson TX2 module measures about 3.4″ x 2″ and features Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11ac WiFi, Bluetooth, 8GB of RAM, and 32GB of eMMC storage. It supports 4K60fps video encoding and decoding and up to 6 cameras (for security systems or machine vision systems).
At its heart is a processor that features:
- 2 NVIDIA Denver 2 custom CPU cores
- 4 ARM Cortex-A57 CPU cores
- 256-core NVIDIA Pascal graphics
NVIDIA says a Jetson TX2 developer kit with the module and a carrier board (adding input and output ports, among other features) goes up for pre-order today for $599 and begins shipping March 14th.
The module itself is priced at $399 (when you order at least 1,000 units) and it should begin shipping in the second quarter of 2017.
Meanwhile, the older TX1 Developer Kit is still available. But its price has dropped to $499.
Can I connect this to my NUC skull?
Shame these boards are so expensive. The Khadas Vim is much better value if you want a dev board.
https://khadas.com/vim/
Can you run deep learning to process 30/60fps video camera on Khadas Vim? Nvidia Tegra features the CUDA support and it just worth it.
Hmm, Is there a chance the Switch actually uses thos and not the X1. I would guess not , but the timing is interesting. I hope Chip Works X-ray the Switch SOC soon
They said they’d publish it later this week, but the rest of the teardown is indeed posted.
No chance. Switch isn’t intended to be cutting edge with its SOC. This x2 is aimed more at automotive than mobile. Those Denver cores are likely too power hungry for Nintendo’s purpose. A chip with A57s as the small cores would not be great for the battery life. As it is, I think it’s more likely the Switch is an x1 with things removed rather than something upgraded.
Nope. We pretty much know what’s inside the Switch, down to the last phillips-screw: https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Nintendo+Switch+Teardown/78263