Kal-El Seen by Analysts as Nvidia's Fortune Maker

A report published in Forbes now suggests that the idea for a fifth core could be translating into about $3.5 to $4 billion for Nvidia - in stock gains alone.

Based on the idea that a fifth companion core that would run background processes at a very low power consumption value when an Android phone is basically in sleep mode, analysts are making the assumption that Nvidia's stock could climb by about 35 percent to $20 and give the company a market capitalization of more than $12 billion. The report suggests that Kal-El could help Android devices run "better" and therefore attract customers.

Dealing with background process power consumption has turned into the holy grail on the road to mobile devices with greater battery running times. The problem is that simply checking for incoming messages keeps many hardware alive, including the CPU, the graphics processor as well as wireless components.

It is unclear how much Kal-El will be able to reduce standby power consumption in an everyday scenario, but it is our impression that it may not be enough and just part of a much more complex solution. For example, there has been an approach to scale Wi-Fi connections, which could improve battery life by 50 percent.