NVIDIA Tegra T239: New leak offers clues about rumours next-generation Nintendo Switch chipset

Rumours about Nintendo releasing a next-generation Switch continue to swirl, perhaps unsurprising considering the console's reliance on ancient NVIDIA Tegra X1 series hardware. Purportedly, a next-generation model could continue to rely on an NVIDIA Tegra chipset, but the long-rumoured T239 instead. In that vein, NVIDIA has now contacted Linux kernel developers to include Tegra T239 support, a step towards the chipset's use in consumer-facing products.

Supposedly, the Tegra T239 utilises eight cores in a single cluster, not twelve as @kopite7kimi claimed last year. Seemingly, the chipset still relies on ARM Cortex-A78AE cores, though. The rumoured efficiency cores also appear to have been axed for some reason. Incidentally, the Tegra T239 is expected to be a customised version of Tegra T234, which NVIDIA codenamed Orin. Currently, Tegra T239's codename is unknown, although @kopite7kimi noted that 'Black Knight' is actually the codename's codename.

If the Tegra T239 is a customised Tegra T234, it should be based on NVIDIA's Ampere architecture. Reputedly, the Tegra T239 will contain 2,048 CUDA cores, up from 256 shader cores in the Maxwell-based Tegra X1. Nominally, the Tegra T239 should deliver 4 TFLOPs of performance too, a 10x increase on the Switch's current 0.4 TFLOP output. Unfortunately, it seems unlikely that Nintendo will deliver a Switch Pro or a Switch 2 anytime soon. As we discussed last month, Nintendo's CEO confirmed with Nikkei that there would be no new Switch hardware before the end of the company's fiscal year, ending March 2023.

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