Qualcomm has been talking about its upcoming S4 class of mobile processors since before they were even called S4 chips. We already knew these new processors would be able to run at clock speeds as high as 2.5 GHz and that they’d support Windows 8 as well as Android, Linux, and other operating systems.
Now the company has put out a white paper that spells out more of the details though. Here are some of the highlights:
- Qualcomm will move from 45nm chips to more efficient 28nm chips with the S4.
- Clock speeds will range from 1.5 GHz to 2.5 Ghz.
- Qualcomm expects S4 chips to use 25 to 40% less power than earlier chips, and offer 60% better performance.
- Processor cores that are not in use can be “collapsed” to consume absolutely no power.
- The Adreno 225 graphics is expected to offer 50% better performance than current Adreno 220 graphics.
- Adreno 225 will supports OpenGL ES 1.1 and 2.0 and DirectX 9.3.
- The processors will support 2G, 3G and 4G mobile data connections around the world as well as WiFi, Bluetooth, and GPS.
We probably won’t actually see phones or tablets shipping with the new S4 chips until early 2012, and Qualcomm’s new chips will go up against the latest processors from NVIDIA, Texas Instruments, and others.
via Engadget
Chip makers are big vapourware purveyors. Like nVidia with the Tegra 2 that we read about for over a year before it came out, and the Kal-EL that will be hear Real Soon Now(R). What is Qualcomm trying to achieve with this? “Next year we’ll produce a chip that will be faster, smaller, and use less power!” – well no kidding, so will every other chip maker around.
I’ve seen a few comments now that Android ICS will be targeted initially at TI OMAP4 chips (which is fair enough, because they’re pretty much the only next-gen chips that are actually available right now) – maybe Qualcomm is trying to pre-empt a mind-share exodus?