Laptop Thoughts: News & Reviews on Laptops, Netbooks, Slates, and More.

"A few months back, we unveiled Project Kal-El - our next-gen Tegra super chip - as the world's first mobile quad-core processor. Kal-El combines a battery-friendly, powerhouse of a quad-core processor with a 12-core NVIDIA GPU that supports 3D stereo. Given that dual-core processors are already on market, you might be wondering how Project Kal-El's quad-core technology will improve the mobile experience. Rather than try to explain it, we've put together a hands-on demo to give you a sneak peek at the new capabilities coming to superphones and tablets later this year."

It's insane - in a good way - how mobile CPU progress has accelerated in the past two years. Prior to that, mobile CPUs were stuck in the 600 mHZ range for years - it wasn't until we saw the first 1 Ghz Snapdragon processors that things really kicked off...it wasn't long until we saw the first dual-core 1 Ghz CPUs, and now before the end of the year we'll see four CPU cores in a single chip that uses less power than less powerful chips a few years back. And what you can do with four CPU cores is quite impressive. Check out the video above and you'll see what I'm talking about!

"With a quad-core CPU and 12-core GPU, Kal-El promises double the CPU performance and three times the graphics performance of today’s industry-leading Tegra 2 chip at even lower power consumption. At tonight’s demo, Nvidia SVP Phil Carmack said that the faster processor would lead to new tablets with higher screen resolutions, because the tablet can output video smoothly at up to 1440p (2560 x 1600)."

For the longest time, consumers had to struggle with single core computers. Sure, there were multi-CPU solutions, but they were very expensive. These days, everything is going multi-core. Desktops have been multi-core for a while, as are notebooks. Smartphones and tablets are making the transition now, and even with the jump to dual-core, it looks like it will not be enough. It also looks like ultra-mobile CPUs, mostly ARM, are truly catching up to x86 CPUs if the benchmarks are to be believed. It seems like sooner or later, everything will be able to run Crysis.

"It appears that Nvidia plans to shake things up at Mobile World Congress next month, with a new Tegra 3 mobile processor. The chip, according to Engadget and Bright Side of News, will boast a Quad-Core Cortex A9 processor and will hum along at clock speeds up to 1.5-GHz. No doubt the Tegra 3 will find its way into cutting-edge tablets soon."

IF, and that is a REALLY BIG IF, these can also make good use of power, sign me up. I'd love some quad-core horsepower in my phone. But, I already find battery life to be the low end of tolerable, so I'll reserve my enthusiasm a bit.