Qualcomm has established itself as the market leader in smartphone processor market, with its Snapdragon processor being a revelation in the new all-powerful smartphones and tablets. The Snapdragon Qualcomm QSD8250 was the game changer as it powered smartphones like HTC HD2 and Google’s Nexus One to 1 Ghz. Now, Snapdragon have started shipping the much awaited 3rd generation Snapdragon processors MSM8260 (for HSPA ) and MSM8660 (for multi-mode HSPA /CDMA2000® 1xEV-DO Rev. B) featuring two enhanced CPU cores running at up to 1.2GHz.
The third release, QSD8672 is the version for tablets and set-top boxes and runs at 1.5 GHz clock speed. The powerful GPU in these new ‘platforms’, as Qualcomm calls them, supports 2D/3D hardware acceleration with support for OpenGL 2.0 and OpenVG (Vector Graphics) 1.1. The processors are powerful enough to support 1080p video encoding-decoding and 1280×800 maximum screen resolution. These platforms, like their predecessors, also integrate GPS and are based on the Scorpion series CPU.
This is bound to revolutionise the handheld market further. While the earlier Snapdragons brought never-before-seen features like 720p recording and lightning performance, now it would be a matter of time before 1080p recording hits smartphones and tablets. Qualcomm are definitely leading the way in helping handheld devices push the limits. We can’t wait for the first devices with these wonder-chips powering them.