4 or 5 cores?

[translocation]

I thought the Tegra 3 Kal-El was 5 cores. 5th core being for ultra low voltage, but the Transformer prime is being advertised as quad core. Isn't it 5 cores?

 

[BigRedNole]

I am not sure what the exact wording or how the design is. I am thinking the Tegra 3 is a quad core processor and the Transformer Prime has a separate processor as the 5th core. There are 5 cores on the Prime though. I am just not sure how it is designed or engineered.

 

[Xyro]

Yeah, it's definitely five as it has the 'companion core' too.

 

[Zebulon]

The confusion is how many cores actually work at any given time. The T3 will function off of the "companion core" for minor tasks like flipping through windows, email, etc. If the task becomes more complex than the one core can handle, it will switch to two of the four "main" cores and disengage the companion. If it gets even more complex, cores three and four will kick in.

In other words, the T3 has five cores, but only uses up to four of them at any given time. The fifth is just to take care of easy stuff.

 

[Zebulon]

Also, that five-core thing is part of the Tegra 3 design. It's not just a TP feature. It will be great on phones, since most of their time is spend in idle, waiting for notifications.

 

[ylexot]

Also, that five-core thing is part of the Tegra 3 design. It's not just a TP feature. It will be great on phones, since most of their time is spend in idle, waiting for notifications.

+1 The Tegra 3 is marketed as a quad-core even though it has a fifth core for better battery life.

 

[skinien]

There are 5 cores. One "main" core (the companion core) and the quad-core. Ideally, the single core runs until you need the CPU boost and the other cores kick in. Check this video out; it's a REALLY good demo on how the cores work together.

NVIDIA Tegra 3: Fifth Companion Core - YouTube