Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime gets Nvidia’s Tegra 3 'Kal-el' chip

TAIWANESE HARDWARE MAKER Asus has announced that its Transformer Prime will be powered by an Nvidia Tegra 3 'Kal-el' quad-core processor.

What we thought was the Transformer 2 is now the Transformer Prime and will be the world's first quad-core tablet, according to Asus. This is the follow on from the Tegra 2 found in the original Transformer.

The tablet got a brief outing in an interview with Allthingsdigital and looks mighty thin, 8.3mm to be exact. It appears to be running a version of Android 3.X Honeycomb but it's still possible it could come with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich.

Johnny Shih, the chairman of Asus said the Transformer Prime will offer up to 16.5 hours' battery life when connected to the keyboard. Asus has scheduled a formal launch for 9 November.

It looks striking with its aluminium body to match the firm's Zenbook laptop and will have a 10.1in screen plus USB and miniHDMI ports.

We'll have to wait until 9 November for the full details, but for now, take a look at the teaser video that Asus released for its Transformer Prime. µ