Qualcomm Unveils Quad-core 2.5GHz Snapdragon

Qualcomm at the Mobile World Conference announced its next mobile processor architecture for the Snapdragon family. Qualcomm claims that the new processor micro-architecture, code-named Krait will offer speeds of up to 2.5GHz per core and deliver 150 percent higher overall performance, as well as 65 percent lower power consumption than currently available ARM-based CPU cores.

While we're getting well acquainted with single and dual-core mobile ARM chips, the Krait will have a quad-core version, which also includes a quad-core Adreno GPU. The latest family of Snapdragon chipsets will include the 28 nm single-core MSM8930, the dual-core MSM8960 and the quad-core APQ8064. All chipsets in the family will integrate a quad-combo of connectivity solutions — WiFi, GPS, Bluetooth and FM — and include support for near field communication (NFC), as well as stereoscopic 3D (S3D) video and photo capture and playback.

At the high end, the Adreno 320 quad-core GPU will deliver up to 15 times the performance of the original Adreno. In fact, Qualcomm claims that the Adreno 320 will deliver similar graphics performance to today’s latest game consoles and output in full HD video to a 1080P flat panel display over HDMI.

The single-core MSM8930 is the world’s first single-chip solution with an integrated LTE modem (mind you, all the new Krait cores have built in LTE) designed to take LTE to mass market smartphones. It won't have the beefy GPU, however, but instead will have the Adreno 305 GPU – which is already already six times faster than the original Adreno.

Samples of the MSM8960 are anticipated to be available in Q2 2011 and samples of the MSM8930 and APQ8064 are anticipated to be available in early 2012.