Just months after Qualcomm Inc.’s (QCOM) Snapdragon processor began shipping in smart phones with a clocked speed of 1 GHz, the company is making plans to ship a new CPU core running at 1.5GHz in a matter of months.
According to ComputerWorld Inc., devices could begin launching with the new chipset by the end of this year. Mark Frankel, VP of product management for Qualcomm CDMA Technologies, said the latest Snapdragon will be targeted at smart phones, tablets and cheap laptops.
The new QSD8672 chip was designed to improve performance and deliver better power management to devices, Frankel told ComputerWorld. The chip includes 1080p video playback and integrated HDMI (high-definition multimedia interface).
The latest dual-core Snapdragon chip, MSM8660, was originally announced in 2008. The chipset has made its way into a suite of devices from HTC Corp., Sony Ericsson, Dell Inc. (DELL), Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ) and Lenovo Group Ltd. (LNVGF).
Texas Instruments Inc. (TXN) plans to ship its OMAP4430 dual-core chip by the end of this year as well.