Qualcomm talks up Snapdragon roadmap

1.3GHz and 1.5GHz versions planned

CES 2010 Qualcomm will launch more advanced Snapdragon processors will this year to give phones and smartbooks better resolution and number crunching capabilities.

Luis Pineda, a senior veep at the chip designer, ran through the Snapdragon roadmap at CES yesterday with the UK website Hexus. He said that a 45nm Snapdragon clocked at 1.3GHz is in development.

The chip – to be called 8X50A – will appear in products by the end of 2010, Pineda said. He was tight-lipped about the exact benefits the chip will bring to smartphones – aside from the obvious improved number crunching capabilities, perhaps because an even faster Snapdragon will then appear before Christmas.

Known as the 8X72, the Qualcomm Snapdragon will be a dual-core 1.5GHz chip designed to enable 1080p resolution imaging and improved performance in smartphone and smartbook devices – the report added.

Quite when the 8X72 will first appear in gadgets is unknown, though the chip will be made available to manufacturers before the end of 2010.

Qualcomm's 1GHz Snapdragon processor already features in such leading smartphones as Google’s Nexus One – torn apart here – and Acer’s A1 Liquid - reviewed here. ®