Friday, 03 September 2010
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| Monday, 01 June 2009 | |
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Beefed up Snapdragon chipset powers Qualcomm ‘smartbooks’…
Semiconductor (and IPR) giant Qualcomm is to use a beefed ‘Snapdragon’ chipset to power ‘smarter’ smartbooks and smartphones. According to Qualcomm, a smartbook is a new category of ultra-mobile device that bridges the gap between smartphones and laptops. According to various industry pundits, smartbooks could give netbooks a run for their money in future intelligent mobile communicator markets. Or not. Either way, smartbooks promise to further blur the already dissolving demarcation lines between smartphones, netbooks and notebooks (not to mention Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs) and ultra-mobile PCs). The new Snapdragon QSD8650A chipset - scheduled for sampling before the end of 2009 – is claimed to offer significant performance improvements including a 1.3GHz processor for 30% higher performance as well as enhanced multimedia and 2D/3D graphics. Utilising 45nm technology also allows power consumption improvements such as up to 30% lower dynamic power than previous-generation Snapdragon products and standby power of less than 10mW. “This latest addition to the growing family of Snapdragon chipsets will help our customers to develop faster, more power-efficient smartphones and smartbooks,” says Luis Pineda, senior vice president of marketing and product management at Qualcomm CDMA Technologies. Qualcomm maintains that smartbooks are a new class of device running mobile operating systems that bridge the functional divide between smartphones and laptops, delivering the best aspects of a smartphone experience on a larger-display form factor. They are connected via 3G, Wi-Fi and GPS, are ultra-portable and personalisable, and will be usable all day on a single battery charge. Another semiconductor vendor reportedly now advancing the notion that the smartbook is a new mould-breaking category of mobile device is Freescale. John Williamson |
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