Feeling the post-
MWC blues? Not enough smartphone hardware talk to get you through your Monday trudge? Fear not, we've grabbed a pair of Qualcomm demo videos from this year's event in Barcelona that show off its MSM7x30 smartphone platform (first
announced in November of last year). It has now made its way into some demo devices and its early performance points to a very happy future for all of us mobile media vultures. Equipped with the same CPU as resides inside
Qualcomm's Snapdragon, this system-on-chip comes with an HDMI output and the ability to play back 720p video on both its host device and your nearest HDTV. There's also some very welcome 3D gaming on show as well as YouTube playback using Flash 10.1 (smooth and silky), but our attention was captured by a nifty picture browser provided by
Scalado. It allows you to view up to
1,000 images at the same time, zoom into each individual one, or sort them by name, color and other attributes. Being able to handle all that, with only minor perceptible lag, shows we're looking at what's shaping up to be a pretty beastly chip. Check it out after the break, and expect it to show up in a lust-worthy smartphone near you by the end of 2010.
[Thanks, TareG]
posted March 1st 2010 8:43AM
I would like to see the Tegra3 or whatever Nvidia is working on atm need competitors to keep prices down..
@Federaly
They JUST announced Tegra 2, you already expect them to announce a Tegra 3?
Those devices are running Android. Statusbar shows when they switch between apps.
Go Android!
@illojal Yeah they say that about 50 times in the video.
@illojal
Android is all over the videos, yet failed to make an appearance in the whole article.
@illojal
they need to update their firmware
I really can't stand this interviewer. Asks bad questions and even repeats them.
@gadgetPr0n I can't stand his tone, sounds like he's being a dick.
Also: why ask if there's multitouch? The handsets are demo units, just to show off the SoC, not the screen hardware. And asking if the system supports emulators for N64 and Dreamcast? What the heck?
@carsonb Seriously, that guy was ANNOYING, to say the least. At least he sourced us this amazing video.
@gadgetPr0n
I'm amazed the interviewee didn't punch him. He just fiddled with everything and you could see the other dudes hand on the side trying to get the guy to be gentle. He is just a rude man.
This is actually work talking about. There was so much hype around the Snapdragon just because it was running at 1ghz but when in reality we all saw it only preformed slightly better than the same core clocked at 550mhz on the OMAP3. the MSM7x30 actually has both a CPU and GPU worth getting excited for on that SOC. We are even seeing the OMAP3 out preforming the Snapdragon when both are clocked at the same speeds.
Did not want to misinform anyone so i figured I would correct myself. I do not want anyone to think that I meant that the Snapdragon does not have a GPU because it does. It has an adreno 200 but it is not as powerful as the one in the Droid/Milestone/N900/3GS which use different versions of the PowerVR SGX.
@JXCGunrunna The Scorpion contains some architectural enhancements and is slightly faster clock-for-clock than the Cortex in the OMAP3. A Scorpion clocked to 1000MHz should be roughly over twice as fast as an OMAP3 clocked to 500MHz. The discrepancies you're talking about are probably due to differences in devices and software configurations (overclocked Droids versus the Nexus One?). There aren't many docs on the Scorpion's architectural changes, but here's an article:
http://www.insidedsp.com/tabid/64/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/238/Qualcomm-Reveals-Details-on-Scorpion-Core.aspx
The Qualcomm Snapdragon platform seems to be meant for MIDs, netbooks, and high-end smartphones, while the "MSM platform" 7x30 series seems to be targeted to smartphones only.
As for the GPU, I haven't heard any details on what GPU will be in the 7x30, or how it will perform. The GPU in the 8x50 Snapdragon is actually plenty powerful enough. It's not as good as the 3GS's SGX but it seems to be almost as fast or just as fast as the Droid/Pre's SGX.
Ill take 1 Samsung with the baby and there Super AMOLED screen, WinPho 7 and as many mobile version 3D xbox games I can fit in it!!!
Common L4D3 Xbox Mobile!!! XD
charbax fails
maybe this will be the chip microsoft is using in wm7.
Its nice and dandy, but if touch screens and batteries are not keeping up the pace, whats the point of a device that wont last a half a day.
@cherryboom
yeah, but think how much time you save by watching 4 videos at once, hmm?
Qualcomm i choose you!
this looks like its a competitor to tegra 2
@sm0ke
Even though Tegra 2 is technically superior (runs two 1080p HD videos simultaneously, compared to the Qualcomm Scorpion which runs one 720p video or four WVGA videos), and has better battery life than the Scorpion, yet it will all come down to who can bring devices earlier. NVIDIA lost the Tegra 1 race.... and unless they ship Tegra 2 in smartphones before Scorpion makes an appearance, they might as well lose this race too. Qualcomm has lots of reach with its hardware partners.
@TareG The Tegra 2 power consumption is actually fairly higher than the 45nm Snapdragon; albeit it's got a beefier GPU and 2x Cortex A9's at the same speed vs an ATI mobile GPU and 1x 1.5GHz Scorpion and 1x 1.1GHz Scorpion.
@metafor
Oh no you don't get Tegra. Tegra 2's power consumption is lower because its parts turn on and off according to the required task.
@TareG I agree although I would love to have a Tegra 2 chip in my next Nexus phone, Qualcomm will no doubt beat Nvidia to the market probably because its cheaper as well.
Would it not be awesome for this to be the minimum chip for Windows Phone 7 Series? Check out that brief look at the gaming going on, it was like a low-end 360.
@HowardtheDuck
Definitely. I think it looked exactly like Little Planet, graphics-wise.
HTC HD3 with Tegra 2, WP7, 4.3in screen and a dual core 1.5ghz processor=my next phone
@forg0tmypen
but where are you going to put it?
@forg0tmypen
Call me crazy, but all these new innovations and phone releases are actually preventing me from buying a new phone. My contract ended with AT&T a year ago. I switched to a pay as you go until I could decide on what phone to buy next. However, every time a new one is released I see what new is coming down the pike. It seems like the phones are obsolete before they even reach the market. What am I to do?
Zoom in on the hotchick again.
Why didn't this article mention android? The platform it is running on?
Palm, Palm, Palm....
Get one of these, a super amloed 3.7 inch, 32gb storage, better keyboard, 512mb-1gb ram, and call it a day (hardware wise)...