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Cellphones Graphics Handhelds Hardware

Qualcomm Ships Dual-Core Snapdragon Chipsets 168

Posted by timothy from the phones-now-beat-my-computer dept.
rrossman2 writes "Qualcomm has issued a press release revealing it has started shipping new dual-core Snapdragon chipsets. These chipsets run each core at up to 1.2GHz, include a GPU that supports 2D/3D acceleration engines for Open GLES 2.0 and Open VG 1.1, 1080p video encode/decode, dedicated low-power audio engine, integrated low-power GPS, and support for 24-bit WXGA 1280x800 resolution displays. These chipsets come in two variants, the MSM8260 for HSPA+ and the MSM8660 for multi-mode HSPA+/CDMA2000 1xEV-DO Rev B. The press release also lists QSD8672 as a third-gen chipset like the two mentioned, but doesn't go into any detail of what its role is. With this announcement of shipping chipsets, how long until HTC makes a super smartphone?"
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Qualcomm Ships Dual-Core Snapdragon Chipsets More

Qualcomm Ships Dual-Core Snapdragon Chipsets

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  • Nahh... (Score:2, Funny)

    by smithfarm ( 862287 )

    I'll wait until it makes a super ULTRA smart phone.

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward

      With this, should be able get a 10 hour 12 inch ultralight netbook, that can do 8 hours playing video or gaming. Also they can put a non-windows on it and say android, and sell it really cheap.
      All this is directly good - further pressure in Intel and windows margins, and more people expecting instant 'on'. The question is, how soon before Windows 7 on ARM comes along?

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by imgod2u ( 812837 )

        Windows 7 won't be on ARM but Windows Embedded 7 will. That's the OS Microsoft is making to target tablets and it will come out on both ARM and x86 at the same time.

    • Give me a phone where I can run an x86 operating system and x86 software. Give it a USB port, HDMI (or similar) output, and a fast SSD drive. Then I can take it to work, plug it in, and use it. Then, at the end of the day, I can drop it in my pocket, take it home, plug it in, and use it. A consistent computing environment would be great. Right now, I use three machines on a regular basis. This is being typed through Remote Access.

      Oh, and I want a phone where I can play Wasteland! IJKL, baby. Gimme s

      • Give me a phone where I can run an x86 operating system and x86 software.

        That would be a very bad move since any x86 OS is both bloated, and not suited for a touch screen only interface. They all want keyboard/mouse inputs. Even Apple realized that OS/X was not the thing to run on a smartphone, while HP has dropped Windows 7 for their Slate, Google offers Android, not Chrome, for phones, and Microsoft Win 7 Mobile is really looking iffy to appear at all.

        This is also why Microsoft Office and Open Offic

        • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

          by Mr2001 ( 90979 )

          Microsoft Win 7 Mobile is really looking iffy to appear at all.

          Uh, what? [engadget.com]

        • Uhm.. as much as i really dislike Apple, I feel obligated to point out that the iphone/pad run stripped down versions of OSX. Apple just removed a bunch of the crap that doesn't need to be there.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Jenming ( 37265 )

          They are not suited for this type of hardware, memory limitations, screen limitation, and lack of keyboard/mouse.

          Ummm, he was asking for a phone without those hardware limitations (i.e. USB, HDMI, SSD drive). It would probably need some rather impressive energy modes in order to switch from desktop to battery modes, but thats all in the software.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by sznupi ( 719324 )

            You surely need to work hard with software to make sure it exploits the possibilites of power savings given by hardware...but it's not the same as "thats all in the software"

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by Jenming ( 37265 )

              you are right of course, "thats all in the software" is a joke that fails because you can't read my body language and haven't heard me say it before :)

        • Even Apple realized that OS/X was not the thing to run on a smartphone

          Actually, Apple is using OS X on the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad, and soon, the Apple TV. They changed the name of the OS from OS X to iPhone OS, but it's the same thing. Apple is attempting to differentiate the OS that runs on their desktops, servers, and laptops by calling it "Mac OS X," but it is, in fact, the same underlying BSD operating system, basically, FreeBSD userland and a Mach kernel. Mac OS X uses Quartz with the Aqua theme for it's GUI window management, which is absent from iPhone OS. The eq

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by drsmithy ( 35869 )

          Even Apple realized that OS/X was not the thing to run on a smartphone [...]

          Apple run a stripped down version of OS X on the iPhone and iPad.

          There's no reason to think Microsoft couldn't do the same with Windows, either, if they were sufficiently motivated.

        • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

          by osho_gg ( 652984 )

          Give me a phone where I can run an x86 operating system and x86 software.

          That would be a very bad move since any x86 OS is both bloated, and not suited for a touch screen only interface.

          This is pure BS. Look at the upcoming Moorestown and the OSes available to run on them. MeeGo runs on it - completely touch-based OS. And, Android also runs on it. There is nothing inherent in the x86 to make it touch-averse. Where it has been lacking so far was performance for the limited power envelop. Moorestown will fix that. The next thing where it will still be lacking is not tight enough integration of communications capability - which is key to create a mobile platform that runs well with limited p

        • My first Smart Phone was a Kyocera 6035. I've used them for longer than most people. I know all about the so-called "paradigm" you're talking about. It's crap. Give me a 800x480 screen for mobile use; and a real OS, video out, USB, and BT for desktop use. Then I'll have all the mobile devices in one, which is the proper "paradigm".

          Apple switched the OS because they want to lock in the software market. If the iPhone was a real computer, Apple couldn't do that. They also want to get away from x86 so th

      • Does it have to be a phone? Why not just stuff a portable drive in your pocket and boot terminals off it to whatever OS you fancy?

      • Nokia 9110 communicator.

        AMD 486 processor and GEOS OS.

        Well you did say x86.

    • With a 4-hour battery life. Sounds exotic!

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by rdnetto ( 955205 )

      With this announcement of shipping chipsets, how long until HTC makes a super smartphone?"

      The term you are looking for is 'netbook'.
      I mean seriously, how could you an improve a device like the N900 (600 MHz ARM Cortex-A8) with more processing power? The interface of such a device is just too limited to push it like you would a laptop (unless you want to carry around Folding@Home with you), since the screen is just too small to look at more than one thing at once.

  • ARM-based laptops (Score:4, Interesting)

    by staalmannen ( 1705340 ) on Sunday June 06, 2010 @04:01AM (#32473764)
    Since the whole "smartbook revolution" seems to be a puff of hot air, the thing to hope for would be that some sort of "assembly kit" possibilities for computer-building hobbyists interested in RISC/ARM architecture could be available. This seems to be a market entirely owned by x86, with tons of pieces that can be stuck together like lego. I for one would love to have a full-size passively cooled laptop with low-energy processor and screen.

  • Great Timing (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Nom du Keyboard ( 633989 ) on Sunday June 06, 2010 @04:23AM (#32473814)
    Great timing to reveal this just ahead of Steve Jobs iPhone 4/HD A4-processor equipped phone. I almost feel badly for Mr. Jobs getting beaten up like this. Even Dan Lyons (aka Fake Steve Jobs) is getting an HTC Incredible.

    I said almost.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by CODiNE ( 27417 )

      Even Dan Lyons (aka Fake Steve Jobs) is getting an HTC Incredible.

      You say that as if Dan Lyons was some kind of strong Apple supporter.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by naasking ( 94116 )

      This is the introduction of a CPU, not a final product. The iPhone 4 will likely make it to market ahead of any phones based on this new chip, so you're right not to feel sorry for Jobs, he's laughing all the way to the bank.

  • It can encode/decode 1080P, so why didn't they put a 1080P Display controller on it? Your new HD mobile device will still be limited to WXGA 1280x800....So much for an HD iPad competitor.

    • Your new HD mobile device will still be limited to WXGA 1280x800....So much for an HD iPad competitor.

      Funny, I don't recall the iPad having a 1920x1080 screen. You only have to compete with what the iPad is at the moment since Apple is slow to change their own standards. Just look at how long the iPhone has been stuck at the same screen resolution -- until tomorrow.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by gbjbaanb ( 229885 )

      Yes, a HDMI output port would make these things much more like a small PC. Wander around with it, reading your emails, then get to the office and plug a cable into it from your TV/Monitor. Add a bluetooth keyboard and you have something every salesman, accountant, and manager dreams of.

      I reckon that's the future of computing devices, not Windows anymore.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by arth1 ( 260657 )

      Because "can" doesn't mean "should".
      There are plenty of applications for a CPU like this where you don't need a 1080p display controller, and the extra expense of one would prohibit this chip from being useful.
      What kind of applications? NAS boxes, automobile computers, industrial meters, audio equipment, mobile phones without video output, robot cleaners, routers, et cetera...

      • There are plenty of applications for a CPU like this where you don't need a 1080p display controller, and the extra expense of one would prohibit this chip from being useful.

        There are zero applications for HDMI output where people don't want 1080p support. They will settle for 720p but that doesn't mean that people don't want 1080p. Anything 720p but a notebook or something is a sad joke, and I'm talking about the built-in LCD, not the video output capabilities.

        With that said, this chip is said to output 1080p via HDMI; the smaller-resolution specification is the highest resolution of LCD panel the built-in device can drive.

  • Power efficiency? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by soupd ( 1099379 ) on Sunday June 06, 2010 @04:29AM (#32473836)

    Some power-draw information for H.264 decode, full tilt GPU utilisation, 25/50/100% CPU utilisation of one/both cores would be welcome.

  • The BBC micro (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Kupfernigk ( 1190345 ) on Sunday June 06, 2010 @04:31AM (#32473840)
    Those of us old British farts who remember the BBC Micro will be celebrating. Who would have thought that, nearly thirty years on, its descendants would at last become a threat to (at least the low end of) the Intel/Microsoft domination of personal computing?

    • Those of us old British farts who remember the BBC Micro will be celebrating. Who would have thought that, nearly thirty years on, its descendants would at last become a threat to (at least the low end of) the Intel/Microsoft domination of personal computing?

      That could be because x86 stinks, x86 has always stunk, and even Intel doesn't execute it as x86 any longer, but instead translates it to its own RISC-like micro ops.

      • What's so bad about x86? (Score:3, Interesting)

        by mangu ( 126918 )

        I did a lot of assembly programming in the 1980s, for nearly every major processor available at the time. The 8086 rocked, in comparison to the others, at least until the 68000 came out.

        The one processor that really stunk, IMHO, was the z80, and that's why its lineage died after being so popular. But the others, like the 6809 and 6502, were rather limited in comparison to the 8086.

        Of course, virtual memory is a different beast and adapting x86 was a kludge. But I don't see RISC as being any improvement. If

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by sznupi ( 719324 )

          And how do you reconcile the ending of your post with how ARM owns markets where efficiency is king? (and where there's often not that much of a need to maintain binary compatibility, so also much easier to switch if there was something better; where high competitiveness is much less stalled by external factors)

        • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

          by hattig ( 47930 )

          The Z80 was a major improvement over the 8080 that it was derived from. It became the most popular 8-bit CPU, and still sells millions every year in variants such as the eZ80 and Z8 microcontrollers.

          The 8086 was an extension of the 8080, and thus inherited all of its limitations as well, and they held x86 back for a long time. As you say, a new design, the 68000, was far more pleasurable to use.

          However where the 8080 succeeded was being the fourth major Intel CPU design (4004, 8008, 4040, 8080) which gave I

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by mangu ( 126918 )

            From your post it's obvious that you never did assembly programming.

            The Z80 was a major improvement over the 8080 that it was derived from

            The major advantage the z80 had over the 8080 was a reduced chip count. Its architecture and instruction set are ridiculous.

            The 8086 was an extension of the 8080, and thus inherited all of its limitations as well

            The 8086 was *truly* a major improvement over the 8080. It had exactly the registers a compiler needs, which the z80 lacked. While the z80 tried to extend the 808

        • Of course, virtual memory is a different beast and adapting x86 was a kludge. But I don't see RISC as being any improvement. If anything, they should have gone to a *more* complex instruction set, otherwise you start losing efficiency at the lowest level with all the library function calls that are needed.

          This is what macros are for. RISC actually reduces the number of cycles an operation requires in most cases because all RISC ops take one cycle. If it takes more than one cycle, it's not RISC. So operations for which we have a single instruction but which take multiple cycles have to be implemented as more instructions, it's true, but not only do they not take any more time to execute but if you don't need all the steps, you can leave some out. Thus RISC provides additional opportunities for optimization.

          Th

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by renoX ( 11677 )

          Bah, you're talking about *manual* assembly programming, which don't really matter much currently: the design of the ISA for RISC are optimised for compilers..

          Some RISC sucks sure, but it's the same for CISCs (x86 sucks big time), so I'm not sure why you do this comparison..

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by sznupi ( 719324 )

      You say that like you don't have reasons to celebrate already. Who could have thought that its descendants would power mobile phones almost universally? Just a single category of devices, one that ships annually around the number of all PCs in operation wordlwide. Hell, you can possibly find ARM cores in an average PC already. There's also this detail of ARM CPU cores possibly, by now, shipping annually in greater numbers than total number of x86 cores Intel ever made.

      • The ARM has been very successful in what have been, in effect, embedded applications. Even the iPhone and the iPad are, basically, embedded. Android and Maemo are general purpose platforms with optimisation for communications, but Android and Maemo devices are too limited to be general purpose (much as I nowadays wonder how I managed without my N900, it is not a computer replacement.) These new dual-core SOC designs mean that ARM will be back driving true general purpose computers. The original BBC Micro (t
    • I remember being at high school around the time the RISC OS 3.5 wave of Arcs were coming out, and at the time it really seemed like a 3 horse race between Acorn, Apple and Microsoft in the UK. It was all downhill from there...till I started using linux and computers were fun again. I've been playing around with Beeb/Elk emulators recently and it's reminded of the difference between a Programmer and a Developer. I much prefer programming a computer as opposed to developing some software. I re-read the Electr

  • We will not get the great dream phones we all want until the current patent mess is sorted out. As soon as HTC brings out a proper iPhone competitor, Apple will sue the crap out of them, making sure that at least they drag the new product into a mire of fud and drawn out proceedings.

    Net result? The customer doesn't get a better device.

    • Re:I hate patent lawsuits (Score:5, Informative)

      by Mr2001 ( 90979 ) on Sunday June 06, 2010 @05:04AM (#32473958) Homepage Journal

      As soon as HTC brings out a proper iPhone competitor

      Nexus One? Droid Incredible? Evo?

      • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

        by plastbox ( 1577037 )
        Hero? Tattoo? HD2? Legend? Desire?

      • Nexus One? Droid Incredible? Evo?

        My new phone has a correction for you: "That's EVO 4G. Bitch."

        Look, just do what my phone says, okay? You don't want to know what it did to the last guy... *shudder*

      • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

        by Totenglocke ( 1291680 )

        As soon as HTC brings out a proper iPhone competitor

        Nexus One? Droid Incredible? Evo?

        He said comptetitor. Those are all phones that make an iPhone look like crap.

      • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

        by Pros_n_Cons ( 535669 )
        dont know about those other phones but evo kicks the ever loving crap out of the iphone. Got mine friday and the hype is real. Battery life is fine, speed is excellent and the best part is when I drop my home inet connection i'll actually be paying the same monthly rate while still having this phone, faster speed at home and a mobile hotspot.

        I went from $60 inet bill + $40 unlimited voice/text a month (no data on the phone) to 109 bucks for unlimited data in my pocket, at home, anywhere, while having thi
    • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • Sounds good for a phone, but awesome on a tablet, where there is more room for battery. The iPad got the right form factor and weight, but I also need a SD slot, HDMI output, user freedom and uncrippled USB. That's one tablet I would buy.

  • 99% of time we use our computers on the internet, and most sites nowadays contain some sort of Flash video. Well, no mobile plays them all out of the box, as we speak. It's not the hardware that is the problem, it's the software.

    There are lots of things that make Flash video necessary on mobile devices. For example, there are lots of video presentations about newest technologies. It's a shame that I have to sit in front of a PC for one hour to watch these, when the same thing could have been done on the way

    • I take it you've never heard of the Nokia N900? Runs Linux (Maemo), comes out of the box with full Flash 9 capability (in a Gecko-based browser) and Flash 10 will be available soon. Even on the older N800 (which, unlike the 900, isn't actually a phone) I could load Pandora or watch YouTube videos using Flash - in fact, either AdBlock or FlashBlock are near-essential for browsing on those devices, due to all the Flash. Fortunately, they (and at least one other Firefox extension) are available, as is full Fir

  • Bleh, so I will have to wait for Beagleboard 2.0 with OMAP4.

    DO WANT!

  • What are you thinking about Quallcomm!

    (And no, there aren't any emails with the feel of Eudora, just a cheap reskin of some lesser mail program)

    • there aren't any emails with the feel of Eudora, just a cheap reskin of some lesser mail program

      Wow, you're pining for the 'feel' of Eudora, when the crappy feel of Eudora ... is what killed Eudora. I guess there's something for everyone, but I wouldn't get my hopes up, if I were you.

  • In the netbook/smartbook marketplace, what I think people want is not just a new gadget for serfing the web. They want something with the same capabilities as their old PC, only smaller. I think this is the reason why ARM netbooks never really took off. Their specs were crippled and they could run only custom software. Something that I am hoping for, is that I could get a ARM-based touchpad or netbook and use that to replace my noisy old intel desktop PC for web-browsing and simple programming. The CPU hor

    • If it only had the capabilities: a decent amount of memory, proper graphics with hardware-accelerated video and HDMI out to a proper screen, USB ports for a keyboard, bluray and storage.

      A built in Bluray player on a tablet..........I think what you're looking for is called a laptop.

      Frankly it is to the point now where I should hand in my geek card because I'm understanding why people like Apple's approach. When I go home, I don't want to deal with crap. I do enough at that at work. When I'm at home I just want things to work. Over the past 8 years, I've not had any problems with Apple's DRM. Yes it maybe there, but it has never inconvenienced me. And that's the point. A lot of peopl

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