Microsoft Surface 3 to allegedly feature Tegra K1

The third iteration of Microsoft's Surface tablet could feature the Tegra K1 SoC, which recently bested all competition at CES.

Andreas Müller/Omar Al-Qudsi, Published 01/11/2014

Windows Tablet

The individual behind the MSFTnerd Twitter account has made a name for themselves as a reliable informant in Microsoft circles, and they're at it again with new information regarding the company's Surface lineup. For starters, Microsoft appears to be working on the Surface 3 tablet, which will run Windows RT and could be available before the end of this year.

The tablet will apparently be powered by NVIDIA's new Tegra K1 processor, which was recently introduced at CES. The chip features 4 cores each running at 2.3GHz, unlike the Tegra 4's 1.8GHZ, resulting in a 40% increase in performance at the same levels of power consumption. The chips greatest improvement could be in the graphics department though, as NVIDIA claims it now reaches the level of Sony's PlayStation 3.

The Twitter account also had info regarding other members of the Surface family, claiming that a Surface Mini and an LTE version of the Surface 2 would appear before the end of 2014. In addition, the Windows 8.1 Update 1 will likely bring with it InstantGo, Microsoft's instant-on service, though that will be limited to newer chips with greater than 4GB of RAM.