Qualcomm Details Faster Snapdragon Chipset

Qualcomm journeyed to New York City this week to reveal some new Snapdragon processor specs -- more powerful and less power-consuming -- about its upcoming MSM8960 Snapdragon processor. Noting that the Snapdragon is already the workhorse processor in most of the world’s smartphones, Steve Mollenkopf, Execitive VP and Group President of Qualcomm CDMA Technologies, said the device is expected to be the first multimode chip to support 4G/LTE with support for WCDMA and CDMA2000 networks. Mollenkopf spoke during an analysts meeting this week.

“The MSM8960 will offer upgraded graphics capabilities with four times the performance of the original Snapdragon chip,” according to Qualcomm, adding that it will also feature “built-in integrated connectivity for WLAN, GPS, Bluetooth and FM.” The chipsets, which will be based on a new CPU core, are earmarked for a new generation of smartphones and tablets.

The MSM8960 dual-core chipset will be the first Qualcomm chip built on 28-nanometer (nm) process technology that the company says will enable a quadrupling of graphics capabilities over the original Snapdragon chip while also delivering five times the performance and 75% less power overall. Mollenkopf noted that market researchers predict 2.5 billion smartphones will be shipped between 2011 and 2014; he indicated that Qualcomm has aspirations of being included in the majority of those devices. Qualcomm’s MSM8960 is scheduled to sample next year.

Qualcomm has regained its momentum after a digression to Ultra Mobile Broadband, which never took off, as the company focuses more on LTE and combination 3G/LTE chipsets. The MSM8960 is aimed at smoothing the move to the next generation of smartphones and tablets. In its most recent quarterly financial report announced this month, Qualcomm said it sold four times as many Snapdragons in its second fiscal half-year as it did in the first half.

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