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Qualcomm Shipping 1.5GHz Snapdragons in Q4

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We still have yet to see the 1.2GHz and 1.3GHz chips of the world, but Qualcomm’s already set to ship their 1.5GHz Snapdragon QSD8672 chipset to handset manufacturers before year’s end. The chip will be dual-core, but their focus isn’t limited to getting this into handsets (though that will definitely be sweet) – they’re looking to target low-cost tablets and netbooks, as well. The chip is using a 45nm process technology which we hear is very easy on battery consumption, but we probably won’t see real world accounts of its performance until late in the year (with first handsets not expected to launch until early 2011).

Qualcomm-12ghz-536x377

With the QSD8672 chipset, manufacturers can enjoy support for 1080p video playback, native support for HDMI interfaces, DDR2 and DDR3 RAM, and more. Do you think this’ll be enough for them to keep up with Texas Instruments and other chipset makers?

[via ComputerWorld]

Quentyn Kennemer
The "Google Phone" sounded too awesome to pass up, so I bought a G1. The rest is history. And yes, I know my name isn't Wilson.

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28 Comments

  1. Please, let there be an Hummingbird equivalent..

  2. Why do you need for there to be a Hummingbird equivalent? Just curious, I don’t care who the manufacturer of the best chip is as long as it’s the best chip…

  3. About the same time Asus will be delivering their tablet.
    *hopes strongly

  4. Yeah the HB is great now… Dont forget that the Dragon has been out for a year…. I like the idea of DD3 RAM on a phone. For as long as they put a nice LONG LASTING BATTERY!!!
    I dont care if my phone is skinnier than a pencil when it doesnt work!!!

  5. @Steve The reason is because Snapdragon = not so cutting edge graphics processor while Hummingbird = cake. I don’t care about who manufactures what either, but the Snapdragon has proved it’s graphics “inabilities”, so I just assumed this will be no different.

  6. well, i think i just found a reason to wait till next year to upgrade my phone.

  7. The dual core Snapdragon is supposed to be capable of 80 million Triangles per second. Compare to the Hummingbird’s 90 million. Sure it’s less, but it’ll be impossible for us mortals to tell the difference. And the processor will be 50% faster. So, this is quite a HUGE difference over the original Snapdragon iteration.

    So, yes, this will be the best processor out there for the time being.

  8. @Wello Works for me. That makes sense.

  9. @Kevin, Tegra 2 is actually quite a bit faster than any other processor out there for the mobile space – it just doesn’t have any design wins yet. IIRC it can be used in phones and has 2 x Cortex A9 chips as opposed to Snapdragon and Hummingbird’s Cortex A8.

  10. @kevin
    but by the time that this comes out im sure there will be new ti omaps that are more powerful and have much better gpus

  11. @Steve#2

    Hummingbird comes with the best mobile graphics core on the market today. Not to mention, The Glaxay S’s Hummingbird was already 45nm, so there’s a reasonable chance the next edition might be build on the 32nm node.

    Although, HTC seems to like Qualcomm’s offerings and frankly, I would take an HTC phone over any equal Samsung phone.

    HTC Glacier much?

  12. @Kevin: You can’t compare future-released technology (1.5GHz Snapdragon) to currently released technology (1.0Ghz Hummingbird). By the time the 1.5GHz Snapdragon is released, a 1.5GHz Hummingbird will also be released making your comparison irrelevant.

    If you want to compare specs, do so with currently used technology, not stuff that will be devices next year.

  13. There will always be something better / faster / newer on the horizon. Keep waiting for it and you’ll never buy anything.

    My 1GHz snapdragon works pretty well for my needs. Android needs better software, esp. UI, more than it needs more processor. I’ll worry about upgrading devices in a couple of years. By the this chip’ll be obsolete, too.

  14. The OMAP4 will have the same gpu as in the galaxy s: the powerVR SGX540. PowerVR is sort of like ARM. They don’t actually make the gpu but they license the design to others.

  15. Im assuming the early next year this will have become a standard for android phones, similar to today’s 1 GHz snapdragon.

    Hopefully first to put their hands into this is HTC….

  16. wello: hummingbird is the cpu, not the gpu.

  17. If one of you can tell the difference between a hummingbird and a Qualcom, I mean you can prove it to me, I’ll punch myself in the face. I notice a very little difference and if there is a new sleek awesome phone, I’m jumping on it.
    Nexus two anyone?

  18. @ ari-free: Hummingbird and Snapdragon are both system on a ship. The chip contains both the CPU and GPU on the same chip.

    @ mudrock1000: Run any 3D app on any Droid and a Galaxy S. The Galaxy S uses a GPU that’s a solid 3 times faster. Then, punch yourself in the face.

  19. to say the 1.5 GHz dual core snapdragon will be better is unfair. sure, the clock speed may be faster… but do you all remember amd vs. intel? intel always had the faster clock speed, but the amd anthlon always out performed the intel pentium chips. the specs of the new snapdragon are impressive, but from the leaked test results, it’s just barely keeping up/slightly outperforming hummingbird. those leaked results are still just speculation. we can’t say that just because it’s got a faster clock speed, that it’ll be better. only time will tell. we can compare the two chipsets when we can get our hands on them. safe to say though, that the snapdragon does have it’s work cut out, cause the hummingbird is extremely impressive!

  20. @mudrock1000: Punch yourself in the face now.

  21. QUALCOMM IS BACK ON TOP!

  22. Qualcomm makes a shitty chip, now if this was Texas Instruments then I would be impressed.

  23. @Ace Curry: It’s a CPU not on any current devices, so it’s not on top. By the time this chip is released, another company (probably Samsung) will have a faster chip yet. And none of this changes the fact that all current Snapdragon chips are inferior to Hummingbird. If you have a Snapdragon CPU Android phone, you’ve got and always will have a slow phone.

  24. Give me better battery life!!!! This 1Ghz snapdragon is a battery f’n whore.

  25. teckel yes but the cpu part is not as good as the one in the OMAP in the Droid X and the OMAP4 has the same powervr 540 gpu as the SGS
    This is important to mention because Apple bought the company that came up with the cpu part of hummingbird but not the powervr gpu.

  26. Well when the Snapdragon first released, it was the fastest processor on the market. Yes the new OMAP and Hummingbird have overtaken it but I have yet to hear rumors of a faster chip than this by Q4. So yes,I think it is fair to say that this chip will put Qualcomm back on top.

  27. depends on os too. my nexus 2.2 , is mad faster than the droid x 2.1. comparisons also equal to which os is runnin too.

  28. I think I’ll stick with my 1GHz Galaxy S and its so-so battery life, and have a nice tasty 1.5GHz DC in tablet form where there will be room for a larger battery.

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