Posts tagged qualcomm
HP launches new WebOS phones, TouchPad tablet
Feb 9th
HP bought Palm last year, and while the company did launch the Pre 2, a moderately updated Pre, a few months later, today we’re seeing the first real fruits of the acquisition. HP just wrapped up its “Think Beyond” event in San Francisco, and the big picture is that it sees WebOS — admittedly an impressive operating system, despite its failure to catch on with consumers in a big way — as a solid foundation to build all sorts of devices on, from phones and tablets (as detailed today) to printers and PCs (in the near future).
HP launched three new devices today: Veer — a tiny, credit-card sized (though of course much thicker) smartphone with a 2.6″ touchscreen — Pre 3, a high-end 3.6″ slider with a giant-crushing 1.4 GHz Snapdragon CPU — and TouchPad, a 9.7″ WebOS tablet with a dual-core 1.2 GHz Snapdragon CPU. All boast impressive specs (including speedy Snapdragon chips from Qualcomm), and it looks like WebOS finally has competitive hardware to run on.
Read on for details of each of HP’s new WebOS devices.
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Microsoft: Windows 8 will support ARM processors
Jan 5th
Microsoft dropped a bombshell at CES today, announcing that the next version of the Windows OS will run on ARM processors. The company stated that Windows for ARM will run on SoC (System on a Chip) architectures and will support hardware accelerated web browsing, media playback, and peripheral support on par with standard x86 Windows.
The move is aimed at extending the Windows experience to new devices. ”Windows PCs will continue to adapt and evolve,” CEO Steve Ballmer said in his keynote. “It means Windows will be everywhere on every kind of device without compromise.” The company showed off demo units running a future version of Windows (but with the user interface from Windows 7) on ARM chips from Qualcomm, Nvidia, and Texas Instruments.
The ARM-powered machines were running just Internet Explorer 9, Office for ARM, and an Epson printer driver. The Nvidia Tegra 2 demo box, however, was nonetheless impressive, smoothly playing the Iron Man 2 trailer in 1080p and running the IE9 HTML5 demos without any hiccups.
Read on for more details about Microsoft’s ARM announcement, and see our Smartphone Processor Guide for more information about ARM’s SoC processor architectures.
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Microsoft launches Windows Phone 7 – 10 phones, 30 countries
Oct 11th
Microsoft just officially launched its new Windows Phone 7 operating system. CEO Steve Ballmer showcased 10 phones that will go on sale in 30 countries soon– October 21 in Europe and Asia and November 8 in the U.S.
HTC showed off its 7 Mozart (3.7″ slate), 7 Surround (3.8″ slide-out speaker), Pro 7 (3.6″ slider), 7 Trophy (3.8″ slate), and HD7 (4.3″ slate). LG has the Optimus 7 (3.8″ slate) and Quantum (3.5″ slider). Dell showed its Venue Pro (4.1″ AMOLED vertical slider), and Samsung trotted out the Focus (4″ Super AMOLED slate) and Omnia 7 (4″ Super AMOLED slate).
All are powered by Qualcomm’s (aging but still speedy) QSD8250 1 GHz Snapdragon CPU, with 8-16 GB of fixed memory and 5-8 MP cameras (with LED or Xenon flash). None appears to have HDMI output or a front-facing camera.
More info at Engadget.
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T-Mobile HTC HD7 Revealed: HD2 Lives On
Oct 10th
A set of leaked photos depict T-Mobile USA’s version of HTC’s upcoming Windows Phone 7 handset, the HD7 (codenamed HTC Schubert). As we detailed earlier, this is basically a WP7 version of HTC’s earlier, Windows Mobile 6.5-powered HD2.
Like the HD2, the HD7 has a 4.3″ WVGA LCD screen, Qualcomm Snapdragon QSD8250 (1 GHz) processor, 576 MB of RAM, and a 5.0 MP camera with autofocus and dual LED flash. The HD7 adds a kickstand, camera button, and more powerful (stereo) speakers, and whereas the HD2 has 1 GB ROM + MicroSD slot (up to 32 GB cards), the T-Mobile HD7 has 512 MB ROM and fixed 16 GB flash. That’s double what the European HD7 is rumored to ship with (8 GB).
The (international) HD7′s dimensions/weight are 122 x 68 x 11.2 mm / 162g, so compared to the T-Mobile HD2 (122 x 67 x 11 mm / 157g), it’s roughly the same size. The T-Mobile HD7 may be slightly taller– no exact dimensions yet. Pricing will likely be the standard $199 (on 2 year contract)– we should get final confirmation at Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 launch in just a few hours.
Source: TmoNews
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HTC HD7 Caught on Camera: 4.3″, 5 MP, Snapdragon, Windows Phone 7
Sep 23rd
HTC’s new Windows Phone 7 handset, dubbed the HD7 (but labeled HD3 in these shots), has been outed in a Taiwanese forum. The successor to the Windows Mobile-powered HTC HD2 sports a very similar design and internals to its predecessor, with a large 4.3″ WVGA (800×480) touchscreen and the same 1 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon QSD8250 CPU and MicroUSB and 3.5mm audio ports as earlier. The phone has 8GB of built-in storage (likely non-expandable), and the volume rocker has been moved to the right side.
The camera is the same 5 MP unit from the HD2, with 720p video recording and dual-LED flash, but the phone gains a dedicated camera button on the side. There’s now also a kickstand in the back, like the Android-powered HTC EVO 4G, but this time cleverly hidden in the camera bezel. There are grille slots at the top and bottom (whereas the HD2/EVO have just one at the top), suggesting the HD7 might be sporting stereo speakers. The HD2′s array of bottom buttons has been replaced by 3 capacitive touch keys (the standard Windows Phone 7 setup of back, start, and search).
Otherwise the phone looks very similar to the HD2– we were surprised to see that the processor, while still speedy today, has not been upgraded, and the phone lacks a Mini-HDMI output and front camera (for video chat), both of which the EVO 4G has. We suspect that’s because HTC simply went about upgrading the HD2 (we’ve seen the codename “HD2+” milling about carrier sheets) and didn’t bother with large chassis changes. This will be a GSM-only model and will hit T-Mobile USA this fall; AT&T may also get it at some point. No pricing or release date info yet.
Qualcomm ships dual-core 1.2 GHz Snapdragon CPU for smartphones
Jun 3rd
Qualcomm just shipped the first dual-core smartphone processor, a 1.2 GHz Snapdragon chip. The new third-generation QSD8260 and 8660 chips are based on a die-shrunk 45nm version of the 1 GHz QSD8250 chip found in phones like the HTC HD2, EVO 4G, and Google’s Nexus One and should use less power while packing a lot more computing horsepower.
The third-generation Snapdragon CPUs offer a next-generation Adreno (ATI Imageon) GPU with support for Open GL ES 2.0 and Open VG 1.1, hardware acceleration for 1080p HD video encode/decode, and video output resolution up to WXGA (1280×800) with 24-bit color. They also pack a dedicated low power audio engine (to allow the rest of the CPU to go to sleep when you’re just playing music) and low power GPS electronics (to reduce power consumption in navigation apps).
The 8260 model packs an HSPA+ radio (GSM), while the 8660 supports both HSPA+ (GSM) and EV-DO Rev. B (CDMA). Qualcomm will also offer the QSD 8672, a 1.5 GHz version for tablets and larger devices that began sampling several months ago.
The CPUs are based on the same Scorpion core design as current Snapdragon chips, implementing the ARMv7 instruction set but offering slightly better performance clock-for-clock than ARM’s reference design, Cortex A8. For more information, check out our Smartphone Processor Guide.
No info on when the new chips will hit production smartphones, but we’re probably looking at early 2011 at the earliest.
Full press release after the break.
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iPad internals revealed: it’s a higher-clocked iPhone 3GS
Apr 7th
iFixit has followed up on its teardown of the new Apple iPad with an analysis of the chips inside. The Apple A4 CPU inside is a “package on package” design, with 256MB of Samsung SDRAM stacked right on top of the CPU, providing some benefits for both latency and power consumption. The CPU is most likely an ARM Cortex A8 design, paired with a PowerVR SGX 535 GPU– meaning that the iPad’s internals are identical to the iPhone 3GS’, except for a jump in CPU clock speed from 600 MHz to 1 GHz.
Anand compared the iPad to Google’s 1 GHz Snapdragon-powered Nexus One phone, finding the iPad was quicker in some tests. However, the two devices were running different operating systems and the iPad has a much larger battery (which may allow for Apple to more aggressively push performance over battery life), thus limiting the usefulness of the comparison.
For more information on Cortex A8, Snapdragon, and other mobile chipsets, check out the TechAutos Smartphone Processor Guide.
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Making Sense of Smartphone Processors: The Mobile CPU/GPU Guide
Mar 14th
Smartphone manufacturers these days boast of their phones’ computer-like capabilities, from desktop-like internet browsing to HD video playback. They toss around spec sheets filled with processor names like ARM11, Cortex A8, Snapdragon, Tegra, OMAP, Armada, and more. What do these all mean, and how do the various chips compare? That’s what we’re going to take a look at today. More >
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