Qualcomm Unveils Quad-Core Snapdragon Architecture

Posted 02/15/2011 at 5:57am | by Paul Lilly

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Chip maker Qualcomm announced its next generation mobile processor architecture (codenamed Drait) on Monday, which will take the Snapdragon line to new heights and "redefine performance for the industry." That's marketing speak, of course, but more than just lip service. Next-generation Snapdragon processors will scorch to 2.5GHz and include up to four-cores. The end result, says Qualcomm, is 150 percent higher overall performance than before, and 65 percent less power consumption than the current crop of ARM processors.

"Just as the original Snapdragon revolutionized smartphones with the first 1GHz processor, these new generations of Snapdragon will revolutionize the next wave of mobile entertainment and computing," said Steve Mollenkopf, executive vice president and group president for Qualcomm. "We believe we have an incredible lineup of chips and software, representing a single platform that OEMs can utilize to create new devices ranging from mass market smartphones with integrated LTE, to tablets, to next generation computing and entertainment devices."

The next batch of Snapdragon chipsets include the single-core MSM8930, dual-core MSM8960, and the quad-core APQ8064, all of with integrate Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth, and FM connectivity, as well as support near field communication (NFC).

Qualcomm's sticking with its 28nm manufacturing process. The integrated GPU, at the high end (Adreno 320 quad-core GPU), will offer up to 15 times the performance of the original Adreno and support 3D and S3D games, capture and playback of S3D photos and videos, and output in Full HD to a 1080p display via HDMI.