Qualcomm, a leading developer of wireless platforms, has decided to expand the Snapdragon platform with a chipset that uses 45 nanometer (nm) process technology. It aims to provide faster processing, battery life improvements, and other enhancements for the user experience on Snapdragon-powered smartphones and smartbooks.
According to Qualcomm, the new Snapdragon QSD8650A chipset – scheduled for sampling before the end of 2009 – offers significant performance improvements including a 1.3 GHz processor for 30% higher performance as well as enhanced multimedia and 2D/3D graphics.
Utilizing 45nm technology also allows power consumption improvements such as up to 30% lower dynamic power than previous-generation Snapdragon products and standby power of less than 10 millwatts, says the company.
Targeting the fast-developing smart devices market, in February, Nokia and Qualcomm announced their plans to develop advanced UMTS mobile devices, initially for North America. The companies intend for the devices to be based on S60 software on Symbian OS, which is software for smartphones. The future devices will leverage Qualcomm’s Mobile Station Modem (MSM) MSM7xxx-series and MSM8xxx-series chipsets for better processing performance and mobile broadband capabilities. (Read: Nokia, Qualcomm Plan New Mobile Devices)
Also, Qualcomm had announced that its chipset will enable the first Android-powered mobile phone – the T-Mobile G1, manufactured by HTC. (Read: Android-based G1 to Run on Qualcomm Chipset)
Among its other offerings, last year, Qualcomm had introduced a PC alternative named Kayak for Net connectivity in developing markets worldwide. It said, manufacturers can make a wide range of devices based on the Kayak reference design. Initial Kayak PC alternative units were supposed to be manufactured by Taiwan-based Inventec Corporation. (Read: Qualcomm Says No to PC, Offers Kayak for Web Access)
“This latest addition to the growing family of Snapdragon chipsets will help our customers develop faster, more power-efficient smartphones and smartbooks,” said Luis Pineda, senior vice president of marketing and product management at Qualcomm CDMA Technologies.
The new QSD8650A chipset also offers multi-mode UMTS and CDMA 3G mobile broadband connectivity in the same 15x15mm package as current Snapdragon chipsets. A standalone, power-efficient 2D graphics accelerator and enhanced 3D graphics core is to deliver a multimedia experience with better performance of Adobe Flash software.
It also features integrated GPS and high-definition video recording and playback, the Bluetooth 2.1 technology and support for Wi-Fi, high-resolution WXGA displays and mobile TV technologies such as MediaFLO, DVB-H, and ISDB-T.
Qualcomm offered its live, over-the-air demonstrations of the MediaFLO interactive broadcast mobile TV platform. It features audio, video, and data applications delivered over both UHF and L-Band frequencies. (Read: Qualcomm Demos Advanced Mobile TV Features)
Now, the company says that more than 15 manufacturers are developing over 30 Snapdragon-based products, the first of which is the Toshiba TG01 Smartphone, introduced in February 2009.
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