Batteries Last 40% Longer With Tegra 3 and DIDIM Technology

The other day we brought to your attention a rumored HTC tablet that will have NVIDIA's new Tegra 3 processor. Of course the Transformer Prime will be the first device with the quad-core chip. Well it appears that those of you waiting for a quad-core device will be treated to longer battery life. Even though the processor may consume less power, by roughly 60%, display technologies will always be the main source of battery consumption. During the UBS Global Technology and Services Conference, NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang broke down in detail a new technology in Tegra 3. This technology is said to reduce backlight power by 40%, which in turn, translates into longer battery life; like and Android tablet with 14 hours of video playback. This technology is known as DIDIM and Jen-Hsun describes it as:

“It’s the ability to per pixel, per frame, per scene to modulate the backlight so quickly that we over a long period of time, reduce the amount of backlight intensity and backlight energy by nearly half. We save as much power in the backlight without changing the visual fidelity at all to save, essentially, the entire power used by our chip.”

When the Tegra 3 processor is in full active mode, it consumes 1-2 watts, while a typical display will consume 3-6 watts depending on brightness. Basically, DIDIM technology will allow Tegra 3 processors to save more power than they consume.

Given that more and more people are going to tablets as their main device of use, it's nice to see a company pushing for better battery life. DIDIM technology will help us get longer performance out of our Android tablets. It will be interesting to see what else NVIDIA has hiding in this new processor.