NVIDIA is boasting Tegra 3, and Samsung its Exynos 4412 – both quad-core system processors for smartphones. Qualcomm says it will not participate in the symbolic measure of power at MWC, but instead focus on the more efficient models with two cores.
Time is moving fast, and we will be able to buy quad-core smartphones this year. NVIDIA Tegra 3 and Samsung Exynos 4412 are both quad-core models with ARM Cortex-A9 cores. Qualcomm has system processors in the Snapdragon S4 family based on the new and very powerful Krait architecture for smartphones, but with two cores at most.
Qualcomm says it will focus on the MSM8960 in retail products, sporting two Krait cores at 1.5 GHz, Adreno 225 graphics and integrated LTE/4G built on TSMC’s 28 nm technology. Qualcomm says that its solution is more efficient that competing solutions, thanks to the new node, and the fact that the LTE/4G technology is integrated into the same chip as other components.
MSM8960 has already been tested, and it is the chip we will see in smartphones with Qualcomm inside. From these tests we can’t say that it is a big problem the quad-core versions have been delayed. Current LTE/4G smartphones have very short battery times and we hope MSM8960 will be the chip to turn the trend.
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It will tru to get its quad-core APQ8064 into products like tablets and stationary units like smart TVs. APQ8064 sports four Krait cores at 2.5 GHz and Adreno 320 graphics, which will be first real shift in generation since the first Adreno graphics. Since the model has the prefix APQ, it means it lacks communication logic like LTE/4G. APQ8064 is a very hot candidate for future Windows 8 units, which supports ARM. We will be meeting with Qualcomm during mWC to dig up more details on its coming plans.
Source: Qualcomm
