Nvidia has described Tegra 3's architecture as having a "companion core" or as wielding a "ninja core". Today, the company officially renamed it 4-PLUS-1 quad-core architecture and trademarked the name. Nvidia said that the reason was that its customers wanted a name for it that would be unique and descriptive.

The architecture provides both processing power and low battery life. It does this by using four powerful CPU cores to handle demanding tasks, such as gaming, and a fifth low-power, battery-saver core to manage less strenuous tasks - like processing e-mail or operating in standby mode.

You can learn more about it the technology in this whitepaper.

NVIDIA also today joined GCT Semiconductor and Renesas Mobile to announce support and joint development of LTE modems and Tegra 3 mobile processors.

This would allow Nvidia's OEM partners to take their current NVIDIA-powered devices to the next level by creating next-gen LTE products with a fast time to market.