BasebandProcessor
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NVIDIA acquiring wireless chip manufacturer Icera, doubling-down on the post-PC era
NVIDIA, a company once focused entirely on giant graphics cards for home computers, has already quite successfully re-positioned itself as a player in the mobile graphics world. Now it's poised to really shake things up, announcing the acquisition of Icera. The UK-based company you've probably never heard of has a line of 3G and 4G baseband processors used in wireless devices and USB modems -- chips that are said to be smaller, more flexible, and more efficient than the competition from Qualcomm and ST-Ericsson. Icera seems to have been focused heavily on LTE of late, which puts NVIDIA in a good place to not only manage what happens to the data when its inside your next-gen phone or tablet, but to also control just how it gets there in the first place. A future Tegra SoC that handles wireless data too? Color us intrigued.
Broadcom announces yet another Android-friendly dual-core processor
Broadcom is giving Google a lot of love of late, with the announcement of its second Android-ready processor in as many months hitting us today. The new BCM28150 is a big step up from its predecessor (released in December), and sports a dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 at 1.1GHz; an HSPA+ modem doing 21Mbps; and Broadcom's VideoCore IV VPU (vector processing unit). What's more, it touts 12-megapixel camera imaging, 3D video and gaming at 1080p, HDMI out, and the obligatory Bluetooth, WiFi, and GPS amenities. If the BCM28150 is your bag, Broadcom plans to demo the thing in Barcelona next week, but if a trip to Spain is too rich for your blood, you can always check out the PR after the jump (and keep it locked right here for our own MWC coverage, of course).
Broadcom announces dual-core BCM2157 processor, promises high-end features for cheap Android phones
As you might have heard, 2011 is shaping up to be a big year for dual-core smartphones, and it looks like you can now officially count Broadcom in on the act. It's just announced its new dual-core BCM2157 platform that provides both HSDPA modem connectivity and applications processing courtesy of some dual-core, 500MHz ARM11 processors. The platform as a whole is also designed to support features like HVGA multitouch displays, 5-megapixel cameras, and mobile hotspots, among other standard fare -- all of which is specifically tailored for Android devices. That obviously doesn't place the processor at the high-end of the dual-core spectrum, but Broadcom says it will allow companies to "deliver high-end smartphone features on more affordable 3G Android handsets," and that's surely a goal we can all get behind. Head on past the break for the complete press release.
