Bye Tegra; Google Selects TI OMAP4 As Preferred Ice Cream Sandwich Processor

NVIDIA’s Tegra 2 processor has been the top choice since being released on the Motorola Xoom. Google made the processor the preferred Honeycomb chipset, and other smartphones followed the trend by upgrading to the dual core power it offered. Now times have changed, and Google is moving on to another major chipset company for the next generation of their software.

Texas Instruments is being selected to offer their OMAP dual core processor as the "go to" chipset for devices that will run Google’s next generation Android 4.0/Ice Cream Sandwich.

TI makes incredible processors and so perhaps we will see some improvements in our next round of super-phones. This is sad news for NVIDIA though, because Google’s sponsorship brought them a lot of customers and attention. With that gone, they might not be as relevant in the mobile space anymore.

What are your thoughts on this chipset switch? Can you hear that? ...NVIDIA’s stocks dropping.
Via: Phandroid
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This is great news and as mentioned, Texas Instruments is a great company. It has been around for years. I'm looking forward to seeing what Ice Cream Sandwich can do!

 

It's nvidia...

 

I think it is because Mr. NVIDIA CEO bad-mouthed Android:
http://www.droidforums.net/forum/droid-news/147660-nvidia-ceo-why-android-tablets-arent-selling.html

Google will show him.

Sent from my unrooted DroidX using DroidForums app.

 

Does this mean we can narrow down the manufacturer of the next Nexus device based on who uses Ti?
-LG?
-Moto?

 

I figured this woudl happen when the final specs for the Bionic were released. Its the first phone on Verizon's LTE with a dual core and its a dual core TI chip. I think Verizon was as sure as they could be that the NVidia chips were what was causing the bad battery life on LTE (I can't find the article that said that and the one where NVidia refuted it). Wonder if the TI chips will increase battery life.

 

Hopefully neither. A locked up Nexus phone by Moto...or a cheap phone by LG? I'd like to see Samsung make the next one. GS2-like form factor, hella fast processor, a beautiful screen, and hopefully Verizon's LTE.

 

Samsung probably won't make it because they will want to use their processor. I am guessing LG or Moto now. But this does bode well for us D3 owners. Since we have this processor we are pretty assured to get some ICS and hopefully soon!!

 

Its Sad that Google would pick any cpu company period
they can claim its optimized for TI but anyone who knows linux knows that it
will perform equally on many many platforms. Google should stay open for Multi platforms and let the phone manufacturers pair with whom they choose
I used the thunderbolt and the battery drain I saw was on 4G how they can blame the CPU for that blows my mind that's like blaming Intel cpu for bad battery life when you sat on your broadcom wireless all day. My point is the Tegra 2 chip is nice is the TI that's newer nicer sure but that could change today if Nvidia releases it's next chip set. then all of a sudden their back on top. just remember stuff changes fast. the bionic will be old news a month after it hits the market so don't get to attached to a device that most of us will struggle to keep for the full two years.

 

Moto has been talking about unlocking bootloaders of existing phones, and not locking some future phones. The D3 and the DX2 are both still locked, Let's hope they start a new trend with this one, if it IS Moto.

 

I wouldn't worry about any Nexus phone being locked up. So far that branding has been reserved for Google's developer models which are intended to be open for hacking.

Interestingly though, Tmobile is the only network that the Nexus phones have been released on. I wonder if At&t will feel differently about things...

I'm glad to see that they are going with TI. If the omaps they put in the OG droid are any indication of what we can expect from the new crop, and Moto actually unlocks some bootloaders on leading devices - I might actually find a phone worthy of replacing my "old trusty" OG.

 

Nexus S 4G? Sprint?

 

Ok, yeah the Nexus S 4g slipped past me... Is that the first time a Nexus phone was released as a variant with the same branding on a different carrier? It makes sense they would start looking elsewhere but I guess I haven't been paying enough attention.

I really would be surprised if Google released a Nexus phone without an easily unlockable bootloader, though. I mean if they asked Motorola and they said no, I doubt they would still release the phone, call it a Nexus anyway and expect nobody to notice.

 

Especially seeing as Google kinda owns the Nexus branding...
Yeah, Google wouldn't release a Nexus phone with a locked bootloader. It's intended really as a developer phone, the same excuses about user error don't really apply.