[GDC 2011] nVidia's quad-core prototype Android tablet running Zen pinball.

nVidia has been hitting the mobile multi-core scene pretty hard lately with Tegra 2 coming out in a fair amount of devices already and the announcement of the Tegra 3 quad-core chip at Mobile World Congress this year. After showing off a working unit at MWC 2011, we were hoping there would be one at GDC 2011 and there was!

Even better than watching a demo on a big screen, we got up close and personal with it at GDC 2011 without the protective plastic covering in our video at least. Granted the tablet you will see in the video is a prototype for development purposes and we couldn't touch it due to it being a little fragile. However we got to witness some great gameplay of Zen Pinball which will be coming to Tegra 2 devices soon and obviously Tegra 3 as well. Unfortunately, Mr. Blurrycam's cousin, Mr. Fuzzycam showed up for our pictures.

As it stands, the quad-core Tegra 3 chip codenamed Kal-El, is fast... very fast. According to nVidia it will be at least 2x to 5x faster than Tegra 2. The graphics look amazing on Zen Pinball running on this prototype tablet and the video we shot doesn't do it justice which is why we tried to zoom in on some parts of the pinball tablet.

Devices with Tegra 3 chips are slated to start coming out by the end of this year for phones with tablets coming early 2012. This is of course if all goes well. nVidia is also working with the Tegra 3 chip and 3D which, for those of you who have a great attention to detail will see, there are dual-cameras on the back of this prototype tablet. Nothing new since the G-Slate has dual-cameras on the back and is Tegra 2 but it'll be interesting to see what nVidia comes up with 3D-wise and Tegra 3.

The Zen Pinball isn't just a loop of the game either. That was the actual playable game you see running in the video.

Developer Website: nVidia Tegra