We mostly already know what Google plans to pack into its Glass AR specs when it goes retail in 2Q14: a 5MP camera, a bone conduction transducer for audio, Wireless G and Bluetooth connectivity, 12 GB of usable storage and a battery promising a full day of typical use. What hasn't been revealed until now is the actual core hardware that makes everything tick.
Some of the specs are still unknown, but a pair of hackers discovered the USB debugging settings and managed to get Android Debug Bridge (ADB) up and running. It confirms that Glass is indeed running Android 4.0.4 "Ice Cream Sandwich" which the system requirements for the MyGlass companion app hinted to in Google's specs.
ADB also revealed that Glass uses the OMAP4430 45-nm SoC from Texas Instruments which features two ARM Cortex-A9 MPCore SMP general-purpose cores (clocked at 1 GHz?) and a PowerVR SGX540 graphics core. Also included in this chip is an IVA 3 Hardware accelerator, an ABE processor, and an ISP supporting a 20MP camera. 1080p HD video performance is supported at 30fps, as well as 720p stereoscopic 3D.
As for memory, the OMAP 4 chip is backed by 682 MB of RAM although kernel messages point to 1 GB of RAM, the hackers claim.
Disappointed in the specs? Don't be – Google Glass isn't meant to play NOVA 3 (although honestly it would be cool), but rather pull some of the functions away from the smartphone. The second-generation Kindle Fire uses the same OMAP 4 SoC (which says the clock speed is 1.2 GHz) and the same amount of memory, so the performance should be nearly equal outside the Pure Android vs. Forked Android debate.
For Google's current list of official specs, head here.