If you're not familiar with Nvidia's Tegra chip, now would be a good time to tuck that name away somewhere in your memory banks. As Noah showed us at the Nvision 2008 show, Tegra brings Hi-Def video and resource hungry UIs to the end user with plenty of power to spare, thanks to the unit's low power consumption. If the buzz is to be believed, Tegra represents a new generation of mobile devices that challenge perceived performance of current mobile computing standards.

TheStreet.com recently interviewed tech reporter James Rogers (embedded below), and he mentioned industry speculation that Nvidia's rumored alliance with one of the top-five mobile OEMs concerns Motorola or Samsung. Unwired View reports that the general manager of Nvidia's mobile unit, Mike Rayfield, has declared that we could see a Tegra phone by the end of the year.

Android's involvement in all of this is perhaps wishful thinking at this point, but it is a lovely thought. Light weight and open operating system meets super powered G/CPU in sleek new handset? Count me in.