MWC 2011: Qualcomm Announces Next Generation of Snapdragon Chipsets

About two days back, we saw NVIDIA’s plans for the next four years with their announcement of four-core processors. Qualcomm has now announced their next gen Snapdragon Chipsets codenamed Krait.

Evolving Mobile CPU’s, 1 GHz at a time…

Coming in single, dual and quad-core versions, these chipsets will also include the latest Adreno GPUs integrated with an LTE modem. The single-core MSM8930, dual-core MSM8960 and quad-core APQ8064 chipsets will include a quad-combo of connectivity solutions — WiFi, GPS, Bluetooth and FM. The chipsets will also support near field communication (NFC), as well as stereoscopic 3D (S3D) video and photo capture and playback..

The MSM8930 will be the world’s first single-chipset with an integrated LTE modem. The chipset will include the new Adreno 305 GPU that is supposed to deliver six times the performance of the original Adreno.

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The MSM8960 is the world’s first dual-core solution with an integrated multi-mode 3G /LTE modem. The MSM8960 will also support dual-channel LP DDR memory and will feature the Adreno 225 GPU which is supposed to churn around 8 times the original Adreno’s performance.

The APQ8064 will include four asynchronous CPU cores and will include support for both PC and LP DDR memory, serial and PCIe interfaces, and multiple USB ports. Also integrated will be the Adreno 320 quad-core GPU, which is said to perform 15 times better.

The above chipsets clearly indicate at what rates we can expect our smartphones to improve, with 3D media content and games being an important asset. Samples for the MSM8960 should be out in the next quarter of 2011 while the MSM8930 and APQ8064 samples might launch early next year.