In the first big news at CES 2013, NVIDIA announced Project Shield, a portable open platform gaming device designed for serious gamers that will run both Android and PC games. During a pre-show press event at the Palms Hotel on Sunday, January 6th, the company also unveiled its new powerhouse Tegra 4, which it claims is “the world’s fastest mobile processor.”

Project Shield will use NVIDIA’s new Tegra 4 and Google’s latest mobile OS, Android Jelly Bean. The device is designed around a full-size console-grade game controller, a 5-inch 720p retinal multi-touch display, and 802.11n 2×2 MIMO game-speed Wi-Fi that purportedly minimizes lags allowing for seamless wireless gameplay. NVIDIA promises 38 hours of gaming from its rechargeable lithium ion batteries. The device, currently in beta, features a micro SD slot, HDMI output and one USB port.

Project Shield plays both Android and PC titles and provides access to any game on Google Play. It can also instantly download Android-optimized titles available on NVIDIA’s TegraZone game store. The unit is capable of streaming games wirelessly from a PC that is equipped with an NVIDIA Kepler-based graphics card (GTX 650 or GTX 660M or higher) and display it via the Shield device to an HDTV (possibly by using Valve’s Big Picture technology). Price was not disclosed, but the company hinted at a Q2 2013 release. By then, it will have another name, as Shield is just a code name.

“We were inspired by a vision that the rise of mobile and cloud technologies will free us from our boxes, letting us game anywhere, on any screen,” said Jen-Hsun Huang, co-founder and chief executive officer at NVIDIA. “We imagined a device that would do for games what the iPod and Kindle have done for music and books, letting us play in a cool new way.”

Separately, NVIDIA also described details on its Tegra 4. The chip will include a custom 72-core NVIDIA GeForce GPU, quad-core A15 CPU and a 4G LTE modem. NVIDIA showed it was more than twice as fast at Web page loads compared to a Google Galaxy 10 tablet running a Tegra 3, and claimed it was faster than even Apple’s A6x chip.

In addition, it is capable of high dynamic range by capturing two images at 0.2 seconds per frame, compared to 2 seconds per frame for the iPhone. You can adjust the exposure settings in real time to produce an HDR image. A device using the Tegra could be the “first always-on HDR camera.”

For those attending the show, you can visit NVIDIA in the South Hall, booth #31269. For those interested in Sunday’s press event, NVIDIA has posted video coverage to its site.