Archive for the ‘qualcomm’ Category

Another Snapdragon-related report from Stacey at GigaOM who quotes Qualcomm as saying they have 15 device manufacturers lined up for Snapdragon-based devices that should be available in 2008.

That’s a lot. But not if Qualcomms or Stacey’s definition of a UMPC is different from mine. If we re-name the devices, mobile Internet smartphones and consider the prototypes shown at CES then I can believe it because in the smartphone world, every manufacturer has to play the Internet game in the top quartile of their product ranges. Anything less than a Cortex-based device is risking being under-powered for the heavyweight world of ‘real’ Internet.

I’m excited that the ARM-based devices are moving into the mobile Internet market. It means competition and learning. Take the best of everything in 2008/9 and 2010 is going to bring some absolute gems based on Cortex 9, Mobile-ITX and Moorestown.

In a week where we’ve been bombarded by news (or Pyrotechnics as Richard Brown of VIA, calls it) from the Intel IDF, it’s important to remember the other side of the fence. Over in smartphone, pmp and pocketPC land, things are happening just as quickly. The PR machine isn’t as big but the products could be just as capable.

GigaOm interviewed Qualcomm’s Dr. Sanjay Jha , COO and president of its CDMA technologies division last week and put a few interesting Ultra Mobile related questions his way.

Stacey Higginbbotham asked the following:

When will these [snapdragon-based] devices come out, and how does this compete with Intel’s Atom processors for ultra-mobile PCs?

Sanjay replies: Devices using Snapdragon will come out in the second half of this year, before or after Christmas. And I wouldn’t say we’re competing with Intel because we want to focus on a pocket-sized device that you can carry with you. Intel’s specifications for Atom are focused on a device with a 7-inch to 9-inch display.

I think Sanjay needs to do a little bit more research. 20 manufacturers are licensed (as ARM might say!) to produce MIDs and all should produce devices before Christmas. Nearly all of the devices will fall smack-bang into the pocket-sized market so Qualcomm, you DO have competition.

ARM-based MIDS will come and i’m sure we’ll see them with longer battery life and smaller designs than with Atom but will they be powerful enough to handle the a full browser and all the media that a user can throw at them?

GigaOm interview.

Via ElectronRun

Almost a year ago, we heard about new Marvel ‘Monahans’ processors that were capable of Ghz+ speeds. It turned out that the Ghz figures where only test speeds but even so, the 800Mhz of the Monahans PXA 320 was pretty impressive. A version of the chip is going to appear in the Ipaq 214 at 624 Mhz (capable of 30fpx H264 at VGA res apparently…very tasty!) and I’m going to be keeping an eye on that PocketPC very closely. Especially is Opera Mobile 9 launches soon.

Today we’re hearing about another ARM-based solution from Qualcomm. Its the Snapdragon mobile device platform which includes the Scorpion Cortex-A8 processor *1 (references to this processor go way back to 2006 so its nothing new) that can scale to 1Ghz. Qualcomm call it the worlds fastest mobile processor.

• XGA display support with LCDC
• Up to 12.0 megapixel camera
• WVGA encode/decode
• Supports Launchpad™ audio and video solutions including: Qcamera™, Qtv™, Qvideophone™, Qcamcorder™
• Digital audio support for MP3, aacPlus™ and Enhanced aacPlus
• Ubiquitous Connectivity. Support for all mobile broadband standards and many technologies complementary to WWAN finally delivers on the promise of seamless always-on connectivity.
• Universal Modem supporting all 2G and 3G mobile broadband standards (CDMA2000 1xEV-DO, Revisions B, A and 0; HSPA, WCDMA, GSM / GPRS / EDGE)
• Support for IEEE 802.11 (WLAN) and VoIP with VCC capabilities
• Broadcast technologies: MediaFLO™, SDMB, ISDB-T,TDMB, and DVB-H with QUALCOMM’s UBM™ universal broadcast modem
• Support for Bluetooth® 2.0 + EDR solution for personal wireless connectivity

According to the press release and WindowsForDevices, Samsung and HTC are adopting this platform for some of their future products. For some I can’t get the word ‘Android’ out of my head!

Press release. Thanks to JKK and Kenneth for the tips.

*1. Some info on Scorpion, its processing power and architechture here.