[Phil Lelyveld comment: the tablet does 3D graphics, not stereoscopic 3D]

Motorola’s upcoming tablet packs relatively powerful Nvidia 3D silicon, confirming a demo Nvidia did a year ago at the Consumer Electronics Show and underscoring the importance of graphics in future tablets.

The Motorola prototype running Google’s Honeycomb, the next version of Android, was shown at the D: Dive Into Mobile in San Francisco Monday.

“We’re taking advantage of the 3D processing power. The particular processor is Nvidia. Their dual-core 3D processor. These guys really know 3D,” said Google’s Andy Rubin when showing off a new 3D version of Google Maps, which is due for cell phones “in a matter of days.” The new version of Google Maps for Mobile will draw using vector graphics, which can result in more responsive mapping because less bandwidth is required. Google Maps will also allow buildings and locations to be rotated via a touch interface. His discussion of the tablet was streamed from the conference

Read the full story here: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13924_3-20024890-64.html?tag=mncol;2n

and watch a video about it here: