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Motorola has confirmed to PhoneScoop that the company plans to ship a smartphone this yeat with a 2-GHz microprocessor inside of it.

This is news, not of least of which because none of the embedded microprocessor manufacturers have announced a 2-GHz microprocessor as yet. Qualcomm has announced plans to manufacture a dual-core Snapdragon chip, eventually taking the existing single-core platform to 1.5-GHz speeds.

What’s unclear, however, is what this will do for the phone’s battery life. While some older Android phones appear sluggish compared to the latest smartphones like the EVO 4G, the knock on those high-end phones is that the additional horsepower and larger displays have severely crimped battery life. (I still think those concerns can be mitigated by turning off some of the location-based services for normal use, but I think I’m in the minority.)

In any event, however, I’d say that the direction smartphones need to go is to establish a robust one-day minimum uptime with all features turned on, and then worry about additional horsepower. If Motorola has indeed met these minimums, then this unannounced 2-GHz platform may be one to watch.

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Engadget Podcast 199 – 06.04.2010 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 04 Jun 2010 12:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Pick any of the smartphones launched this year and chances are it has a Qualcomm Snapdragon processor in it. The Snapdragon chips, which can run at up to 1 GHz, have been at the core of devices such as Google’s Nexus One, HTC’s Incredible and the HTC Evo 4G.

Now Qualcomm is getting ready to introduce dual-CPU chipsets that boost the speed to 1.2 GHz and 1.5 GHz. The chipsets, called MSM826, MSM8660 and QSD8672, are likely to show up in stores by the end of the year. Handset manufacturers are currently designing products based on the processors, says Qualcomm.

The dual cores and higher processing speeds will allow for better multimedia performance. The chipsets also include a graphics processing unit with 3-D and 2-D acceleration engines for better rendering, 1080p video encoding and decoding capabilities, and integrated low-power GPS. They can support 24-bit 1280 x 800 resolution displays, says Qualcomm.

As smartphones get more ambitious in their desire to offer a video and web experience similar to that of PCs, there’s greater need for increased processing power. Last month, Adobe showed an early version of the Flash Player 10.1 for the Android operating system. Flash Player 10.1 on Nexus One can display video and animation unmatched by most other smartphones. But the technology also requires more processing power than current devices can offer. In Wired.com’s tests, the Nexus One’s 1 GHz Snapdragon processor seemed sluggish and struggled to render Flash sites quickly using Flash Player 10.1. Adobe has said it is hoping a newer generation of smartphones will change that experience.

Qualcomm is certainly trying to encourage it. At the Computex trade show in Taipei, Taiwan, Qualcomm is showing a range of new Snapdragon-powered devices — not all of them phones. Among them are Acer’s newly launched Liquid and neoTouch smartphones, Dell’s Streak 5-inch Android tablet, Huawei’s S7 tablet and Lenovo’s LePhone smartphone.

See Also:

• Intel Introduces Ultra-Low-Power Processor for Smartphones
• Netbooks Set to Get More Video and Audio Oomph
• Review: HTC Droid Incredible Smartphone

Photo: Qualcomm Snapdragon (doctorserone/Flickr)

Oh yeah baby, Qualcomm‘s finally shipping its first dual-core Snapdragons. To whom, is the big question. Its third-generation Mobile Station Modem MSM8260 and MSM8660 Snapdragon chipsets for high-end smartphones — originally announced in February 2009 — are now sampling and capable of running at up to 1.2GHz. The MSM8260 supports HSPA+, while the MSM8660 brings support for multi-mode HSPA+ and 1xEV-DO Rev. B. Both integrate GPS, a GPU with 2D / 3D acceleration engines for Open GL ES 2.0 and Open VG 1.1, 1080p video encoding and decoding, a dedicated low-power audio engine, and support for 24-bit WXGA 1,280 x 800 pixel displays. Anybody at Computex care to step forward with a reference design?

Update: We just spoke with company representatives here at the show, and try as we may, we couldn’t convince anyone at the company to show off a dual-core reference design. We were flat-out told that the only people at Computex getting a glimpse at the new silicon were prospective customers, though we did manage to pry out a few interesting details about the chip itself and the future of the line. For one, these new chips have two application cores and a single modem core, whereas existing chips have a single application core alongside a single modem core. We were also told in no uncertain terms that an even quicker version of the Snapdragon would be launched before the year’s end, and as you’d likely surmise, it’ll be aimed at “larger screen” devices — you know, like slates and tablet PCs.

[Image courtesy of Carina Larsson]

Continue reading Qualcomm ships first dual-core Snapdragon chipsets clocking 1.2GHz

Qualcomm ships first dual-core Snapdragon chipsets clocking 1.2GHz originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 Jun 2010 01:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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As expected, the official-looking Windows Phone 7 OS ROM leaked over the weekend is already yielding results. Pictured above is an image extracted from the “oemavatar.cab.” Now that could be a generic Windows Phone 7 image or it could be the HTC Mondrian already seen referenced by the 100MB file. The kids at XDA-Developers have also pieced together specs from an ongoing analysis of the registry and RGU files. So far they’ve spotted references to a 4.3-inch WVGA (480×800) display from Optrex and a 1.3GHz QSD8650A/B Snapdragon from Qualcomm — a chipset, you might recall, supporting multi-mode UMTS and CDMA 3G connectivity. It’s also packing a digital compass but seems to lack a keyboard. Mind you, none of this is absolute but it’s very very intriguing.

[Thanks, Andrew]

HTC Mondrian with 1.3GHz Snapdragon detailed in leaked Windows Phone 7 ROM? originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 17 May 2010 05:51:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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