Nvidia is expected to release the third generation of Tegra platform this year. The company is also expected to the "Maxwell" Chips using Project Denver in 2013, the first chips that will combine an ARM CPU, with NVIDA GPUs for super-computing.

Nvidia is moving into the fast-growing mobile business, combining low-powered processors designed by ARM with its own graphics processors under the Tegra brand name for telephones and tablets. Nvidia's Tegra 2 platform appeared earlier this month CES 2011 and will power many products including the Motorola Xoom and the first dual-core smartphone - the LG Optimus 2X.

In an interview with Hexus.net web site, NVIDIA's Tegra GM Mike Rayfield hinted that the company's third generation of the Tegra platform - Tegra 3 - will launch this year.

"I'm going to come pretty close to my cadence of a launch every year," said Rayfield. "It will be in production around the same time as my competitors' first dual-cores will."

Mr. Rayfield also talked aboout the Project Denver, NVIDIA's chip design that will combine an ARM CPU core with an Nvidia GPU core in a singe chip and will find its way to high-end computers.

"As well as licensing Cortex A15, we also have an architectural license with ARM to produce an extremely high performance ARM CPU, which be combined with NVIDA GPUs for super-computing," he said. When we asked for timescales, Rayfield revealed: "The Maxwell generation will be the first end-product using Project Denver. This is a far greater resource investment for us than just licensing a design."

According to Nvidia's CUDA GPU roadmap, the 22nm "Maxwell" chips will appear in 2013 following the released of the 28nm "Kepler" generation in the end of 2011.

Nvidia chief executive Jen-Hsun Huang these new chips will consume "a little more" power than the current generation Fermi chips Fermi chips but they will also be faster. The Kepler processor will be three to four times faster than Nvidia's current Fermi chip generation, Huang said at the at Nvidia's GPU technology conference last September. The Maxwell chips will be ten to 12 times the power of Fermi, Huang added.