NVIDIA looks to raise the bar again with upcoming Tegra 2 3D and Tegra 3 chipsets

Just as it appears that NVIDIA's Tegra 2 chipset is starting to achieve widespread adoption being featured in many prominent products at CES 2011 (about a year after the chip's launch at CES 2010), the graphics behemoth is looking to up the ante again with the introduction of a 3D addition to the Tegra 2 family and the next-gen Tegra 3.

First alluded to in an incomplete copy of a leaked presentation slide, the complete slide has now come to light (shown above) to lay out NVIDIA's mobile processor plans, which are rumored to be revealed at the Mobile World Congress next month.

First up with a schedule for this spring is the Tegra 2 3D, a 3D display-capable addition to the existing Tegra 2 family, retaining the dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 architecture but clocked at 1.2GHz instead of 1GHz. Apart from the higher clock speed and 3D capabilities, it seems like the chipset will otherwise be quite similar to the existing Tegra 2 also being available in both tablet and smartphone flavors in the form of the T25 and AP25 chipsets, respectively.

Undoubtedly the more exciting development is the next-gen Tegra 3 scheduled to launch later this year in the fall, bringing a quad-core Cortex-A9 processor to the table clocked at 1.5Ghz. Promising more than double the performance of its Tegra 2 predecessors, the new platform also boasts three times the graphics performance, full Blu-Ray HD video playback, and support for displays up to 1920×1200 in tablet form and 1366×768 for smartphones.

Keeping in mind the processor's mobile nature, the architecture also includes an Ultra Low Power mode to maintain good battery life. Like the Tegra 2, the Tegra 3 will also be available in tablet and smartphone forms, with the headlining 1.5GHz quad-core T30 being specifically for tablets, and the smartphone-specific AP30 coming in both quad-core and dual-core varieties with so far unspecified clock speeds.

The thought of quad-core processing power reaching mobile devices really highlights the pace of development in this sector with the promise of even more capable tablets and smartphones at the end of this year and early next year. With Tegra 2 devices taking the limelight at CES 2011, it looks likely that Tegra 3 will be a star at CES 2012!

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