Nvidia Readies Its First Chip With LTE Built In

Qualcomm has a little more competition in the market for chips that can power the latest smartphones.

Nvidia is announcing on Tuesday the Tegra 4i, its first chip to integrate a modem that can support LTE network capabilities. The chip is now sampling, with a few phones using the chip expected in the fourth quarter, and more in the first quarter of 2014.

The chip packs a quad-core processor based on ARM’s Cortex A9 design, along with a fifth core for low-power operation and as a graphics processor engine with 60 cores and the LTE modem.

Nvidia plans to show a reference-design phone, code-named Phoenix, at the Mobile World Congess event that runs next week in Barcelona.

Broadcom announced its LTE plans last week, with a high-end chip expected to ship next year.