Nvidia adds fifth processor core to fine-tune Tegra series

'Companion core' improves energy efficiency in Kal-El chips

Nvidia is to add an extra processor core to its quad-core Tegra line to allow Tegra Kal-El chips to run with better efficiency and improved management of processing tasks.

The low-power 'companion core' will run background tasks and other activities which would normally require a processing core. It is designed to operate at a lower power level, and will cut down on power loss from leakage when devices are in standby.

Nvidia believes that the system will improve energy use by saving the normal processing cores for compute-intensive tasks.

"During less power-hungry tasks, like web reading, music playback and video playback, Kal-El completely powers down its four performance-tuned cores and instead uses its fifth companion core," said Nvidia director of product marketing Matt Wuebbling in a blog post.

"For higher performance tasks, Kal-El disables its companion core and turns on its four performance cores, one at a time, as the workload increases."

Nvidia claims that the quad-core Kal-El processors will eventually run with less power than current dual-core chips.

Decreasing power leakage has been a key element of processor design as chipmakers scale down the size of transistors.

Intel recently highlighted its 3D tri-gate transistor in helping to reduce the loss of power from leakage and optimise the efficiency of future chips.