Qualcomm chipset for multiple wireless broadband standards

Stuart Corner
Monday, 13 November 2006 15:09

Business IT - Technology

Qualcomm has given details of its future Snapdragon chipset for mobile devices that will support an unprecedented range of mobile access technologies: CDMA 1x Ev-DO, WCDMA (UMTS)/HSDPA/HSUPA, broadcast television and multimedia, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.

According to Sanjay K Jha, president of Qualcomm CDMA Technologies. "The Snapdragon platform represents the next stage of mobility, opening the door to new opportunities."

At the core of Snapdragon is the Scorpion 1GHz microprocessor, claimed to offer "unsurpassed mobile performance and power savings. Scorpion is paired with a 128 bit single-instruction, multiple-data capability and Qualcomm's next-generation 600MHz digital signal processor to accelerate multimedia applications.

"The converging of multiple functions into a single mobile device has long been a trend in the market - people want to always be in touch and do everything they need, but not have to carry around too many gadgets," said Will Strauss, president of Forward Concepts.

Snapdragon-based chipsets are scheduled to begin sampling in the third quarter of 2007 and Qualcomm has announced that Samsung Electronics will be one the first device manufacturers to incorporate Snapdragon in its devices.