Quadcore Tablets Rumors for later in 2011

Dual-core chips power tablets such as the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 but quad-core tablets are likely to be next Image: Samsung

Nvidia reportedly will ship the quadcore Tegra 3 in August. Motorola is rumored to be among the first to ship a Tegra 3 tablet.

Some of the Samsung Galaxy tablets use the Tegra 2 chip and are expected to upgrade to the Tegra 3 chip.

Writing in a blog post in February, Michael Rayfield, general manager of Nvidia’s mobile unit, said the company expects its customers to be planning production of quad-core devices this August, adding: “I can’t wait to see the next wave of superphones and super tablets.”

Quad-core powered superphones may be coming down the line but Enrico Salvatori, senior VP of Qualcomm Europe, reckons tablets are the natural home for these chipsets in the first instance. For this reason, he said the chipmaker’s first quad-core chipset will come with wi-fi inside but no 3G modem.

Tegra 3 specs
* Processor: Quad-core ARM Cortex-A9 MPCore, up to 1.5 GHz
* Ultra Low Power CPU mode
* 40 nm by TSMC
* Video output up to 2560×1600
* NEON instruction sets from ARM
* 1080p H.264 High Profile video decode
* 12-Core Nvidia GPU with support for 3D stereo (12 unified shaders)
* Improved GPU core (5 times faster than Tegra 2)
* To be released in the second half of 2011

Apple iPad and iPad2 still dominate the tablet market.

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