The next operating system from Google is Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich, which will combine Gingerbread with Honeycomb to get a unified operating system for tablets and smartphones. A pictures that is said to come from Texas Instruments implies that it will be them who supplies the SoC in the first Ice Cream Sandwich units.
Android is currently split into two camps, where Gingerbread is for smartphones with smaller screens, and Honeycomb in tablets. The problem with this is that developer has to adjust applications for two operating system instead of one, something Google will correct with the coming Ice Cream Sandwich using the best from both worlds.
We remember that NVIDIA Tegra 2 was honored to be the reference design for Android 3.0, Honeycomb, which resulted in all tablets with Honeycomb using Tegra 2. A picture said to come from Texas Instruments reveals that it will be them to hold the next reference design for Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich.
It may be that Texas Instruments will not be alone with powering Ice Cream Sandwich, but it is likely that its circuits will appear in the first units sporting the new operating system. Which candidate we can expect is uncertain, but it is most likely one of the newer chips, OMAP4430/4460 with dual cores at 1.0 GHz and 1.5 GHz. Samsung is said to bring the new smartphone from Google and then there is talk about using OMAP4460.
Ice Cream Sandwich is expected to appear near the end of the year, and most likely it will be Google’s own smartphone that will introduce the new operating system.
Source: The Droid Guy
