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Smartphone makers to embrace multi-core chips

Nvidia will have two- and four-core jobs for them

By the end of the 2011, 15 per cent of us will be using smartphones with multi-core processors.

So says market watcher Strategy Analytics, which also reckons 45 per cent of the über-handsets will contain two or more processing cores come 2015.

Right now, you can't buy a multi-core smartphone. LG will release what is expected to be first, the Optimus 2x, running Android, over the coming months. It's already on sale in Korea, and is due over here in March.

The 2x is built around Nvidia's dual-core Tegra 2 processor, and the graphics chip company has certainly been making the most noise about its multi-core offerings. That said Strategy Analytics reckons Samsung and Qualcomm will ship more multi-core phone chips this year than Nvidia will, though it will come above ST-Ericsson and Texas Instruments.

Nvidia's Tegra roadmap has leaked, incidentally - you can view it here at Bright Side of News - showing "the world's first mobile 3D processor" shipping this spring, the Tegra 2 3D, followed in the autumn by sample quantities of the quad-core Tegra 3.

The Tegra 2 3D's ARM Cortex A9 cores will run at speeds of up to 1.2GHz, while the Tegra 3's A9s will be clocked at a peak of 1.5GHz. Nvidia claims the Tegra 3 can handle Blu-ray video content with ease and power a 1920 x 1200 display. Its graphics will be "3x faster" than the Tegra 2. ®

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