Google Confirms Two Form-Factors, NVIDIA Tegra K1 Support For Project Ara 'LEGO' Smartphone

Google’s Project Ara modular smartphone project took a huge leap forward in late October, as the company for the first time publicly showed a fully functional prototype device running Android. At the time Google also discussed the promising progress that was being made moving from Spiral 1 prototypes to more space-efficient Spiral 2 prototypes.

This month, Google is ready to provide another update on the status of Project Ara and there are plenty of juicy details to savor. Ara project leader Paul Eremenko was delighted to announce that his team received three demo units of Spiral 2 prototypes from Quanta. Eremenko also confirmed that the there would be two form-factors for the Ara smartphones along with two processor designs to choose from.

The first processor is a PXA1928 (64-bit ARMv8 architecture with four 1.5GHz Cortex A53 cores) from Marvell, but the one that is sure to get the attention of enthusiasts is the Tegra K1 from NVIDIA. 

“The Spiral 2 form factor prototypes look beautiful, custom module shells and all,” said an excited Eremenko. “We can’t wait to show it to you at the Developers Conference in January!”

Spiral 2 PCB

Eremenko is referencing the Project Ara Module Developers Conference that will be held on January 14, 2015 at Google’s Mountain View, California headquarters. There will also be viewings shown at satellite locations on the same day in New York City, Buenos Aires, and London. 

While the Spiral 2 prototypes will headline the January event, Google hopes to gets its hands dirty with Spiral 3 prototypes this Spring.