MWC: Qualcomm announces 2.5GHz Snapdragon

Qualcomm’s new-generation Snapdragon mobile processors have a maximum clock speed of 2.5GHz. The SOCs will be produced with one, two or four cores on board and are made using a 28nm process.

The singlecore variant will be given the type number MSM8930 and will be released in early 2012. The dual-core MSM8960 would already appear in the second quarter of this year, but that will initially only concern samples: mass production will only start later. The quad-core APQ8064 will have to wait until early 2012. The latter soc will mainly be used in tablets, while the single and dual core socs will be used for mobile phones. Qualcomm announced its latest generation of Snapdragon SOCs, codenamed Krait, at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

In addition to the top speed of 2.5GHz, the SOCs will have WiFi, Bluetooth and FM radio on board, and a GPS receiver and NFC chip are also integrated. In addition, the SOCs get a 3G and LTE modem on board and of course they are equipped with support for the display of video and audio: devices with Qualcomms Kraits on board can display 1080p video, among other things. For gaming, the SOCs are equipped with a single, dual-core or quad-core GPU in the form of the Adreno 305, 225 and 320. This gives devices, among other things, support for 3D gaming and making 3D video recordings.

Because they are produced at 28nm instead of the current 45nm, the Kraits are said to be more energy efficient than the current generation of Snapdragons. The cores based on the unspecified Arm version – it is unknown whether they are based on Cortex A9 or A15 – would consume 65 percent less energy than current cores. The calculation cores can be switched on and off individually, which should benefit energy consumption. The SOCs also support PCDDR3 and LPDDR memory, USB and HDMI ports, and serial and PCI Express interfaces, among other things.

TypeMSM8930
MSM8960
APQ8064