Nvidia’s Tegra 3 is a quad-core powerhouse for smartphones and tablets

We’re going to be seeing Nvidia’s dual-core Tegra 2 chip on a slew of devices this year, including Motorola’s Xoom tablet and LG’s Optimus 2X phone. Now it looks like Nvidia has quad-core ambitions for the chip’s next iteration, the Tegra 3, according to an internal slide revealed by Bright Side of News.

The news means we can expect even more powerful phones and tablets later this year and that the line between mobile devices and traditional computers will be blurred even further.

According to the slide, the tablet version of the Tegra 3 chip will run at speeds up to 1.5 gigahertz, support Blu-ray video and screen resolutions up to 1920 by 1200 pixels (slightly higher than 1080p high-definition video). The notion of Blu-ray drives in tablets is silly, but the chip’s support for it could mean that Nvidia envisions the Tegra 3 as something that can also be used in ultraportable laptops, all-in-one desktops or kiosks. Nvidia also touts an ultra low power mode that will prevent the CPU from being a battery hog.

The phone version of the Tegra 3 will be available in quad or dual-core varieties and support displays up to 1366 by 768 pixels in resolution, something most often seen in laptops around 13 inches. I can’t imagine why quad-core CPUs would be justified in a phone, but as a gadget geek it’s still exciting to see hardware boundaries pushed.

The same slide also reveals that Nvidia has a 3D version of the Tegra 2 on the horizon, which could be used to bring 3D capabilities to mobile devices.

Tegra 3 devices will start appearing at the end of the year.

Via Engadget