Qualcomm Quad Core Inside

[WenWM]

It seems our new line of phones might start being sold with stickers like this on it. Yesterday, Qualcomm unveiled their next generation of processors for mobile devices. These new processors are said to improve performance by 150% and crash the power consumption down a whooping 65% over current processors. The speed of these new chips is up to 2.5 GHz per core, with the choice of single, dual, and quad core being available.

Keep in mind, these new processors are more likely made for tablets like the Xoom and the Tab 10.1. Samples for the dual-core MSM8960 will be available in second quarter this year, while single-core MSM8930 and quad-core APQ8063 versions are coming early 2012. This means you will not see them powering any tablets for quite some time, but the good news is Nvidia might have all this out before Qualcomm does, we'll just have to wait and see.

Thoughts on this new development?

Source: Qualcomm unveils next-gen Snapdragon family, including quad-core 2.5GHz CPU -- Engadget

 

[kptphalkon]

Bleh...just getting closer and closer to when handhelds and desktops are one and the same...

Sent from the Blue Falcon cockpit on my Fission 2.4.3 D2G

 

[SixStringTheory]

That will never happen. Mobile chip architecture is mostly based on power consumption. Desktop CPUs don't really care too much about power consumption.

An Intel i7 is a 130 watt cpu. The less powerful models are 70-90 watts. The chips they use in mobiles draw only a few watts. Even if you see a 2.5ghz mobile processor it will only be a fraction of the processing power of a desktop CPU.

Desktops will never be replaced by handhelds. At some point people need more power than a mobile cpu run by a battery can supply.

 

[jstafford1]

Actually I think it will happen. Maybe not in 5-10, but the move to pure mobile computing is on the way. It will take a shift in thinking as well as technology for it to happen. But it will happen.

Sent from somewhere...

 

[SixStringTheory]

I don't know. Content tends to grow with the power to run it. My first Gateway2000 would all day to render a website like gizmodo (if it even could). As available power increased people developed technologies that utilized that power.

Maybe the handhelds in 10 years will handle the tech of today, but the tech of 2010 will require more power than we see now. And if form factors such as handhelds and tablets catch on for mundane tasks like emailing and wasting time, that doesn't mean they'll be suited for tasks that, like it or not, a mouse/keyboard and 150 watt processor are better at.

I'm not denying the dramatic increase in power of handhelds. But unless some insane new technologies, like cold fusion batteries (lol), there will just never be enough available stored energy to fuel a handheld with the power of a desktop.

 

[jstafford1]

30 years ago someone said 256k RAM was all you'd ever need. 20yrs ago no one thought you'd be surfing the web or emailing on cell phones. Tablets are paving the way for mobile computing.
There's tech out that uses stray radio/wifi/and other signals to charge batteries. If this gets developed to where it can run a phone as opposed to just charging while not in use there's a good chance of things getting off the cords.

Sent from somewhere...

 

[SixStringTheory]

No you're 100% right. But still, even though we can email and surf the web on phones, which was what desktops did 10-20 years ago, we can do things today on desktops that weren't even dreamt of back then.

So even in 20 years if we can do tasks that desktops do today, there will be so many new things desktops can do in the future that handhelds can't. The i15 processor will be rendering photo-realistic graphics in real time maybe. Handhelds, regardless of how powerful they may in the future, will still be way behind what desktops do.

There will always be two power curves: One for desktops one for mobiles.

 

[jstafford1]

There will be the two curves, but they will get closer to each other as time goes by. I am more saying the capability will be there to not need a desktop in the near future. In now way will they match performance. Just capabilities will get closer and closer.
Graphics and the such is a performance issue that will always be in desktops favor, but in overall capabilities they will be close soon. Its exciting to see where things are going.

Sent from somewhere...

 

[kodiak799]

Can't you put a beefier processor in and throttle it when on battery? I'm thinking of something like this as a PC-replacement that, when docked would be plugged into a bigger power supply to feed the processor.

They'll never replace 100% of PC's, but 90-95% of home PC's?

 

[Grybrd]

Also ... remember that the screen consumes around 70% of mobile power not the processor.

 

[kodiak799]

Also ... remember that the screen consumes around 70% of mobile power not the processor.

Yeah, the screen is the big killer people always seem to forget about. And the bigger screens are probably what hurts more than the dual core.

Shouldn't dual core and LTE technically consume less power, since it gets the task done quicker and isn't burning the CPU? I know wifi is more efficient than 3G, but it does bleed a bit more when idle (seems like some of the roms have tweaked wifi).

 

[kptphalkon]

I was more thinking about the trend of cloud computing and how it could effect business platforms with new mobile access, and the who knows what possibilities of future technology. Fold out screens are not commercial but do exist, 3D displays are (albeit a far cry) a potential way towards "pop out" holographic displays we've seen in movies.

Consider a top of the line phone from ten years ago and what it could not do compared to the average home desktop.

Consider today's top of the line with the average desktop. Now i know in some respect its unfair to not wedge a dual core phone against a 2nd gen i7 in that view, but for practical purposes that cpu costs more than the entire phone, extra batteries, charger and cases and accessories.

Granted the curve will always be there, but it is slowly moving towards the same point on the chart.

Sent from the Blue Falcon cockpit on my Fission 2.4.3 D2G

 

[MoeDaddy]

Less and less people use desktops and laptops are mobile devices and the line will continue to blur as chips get smaller and battery tech gets better...

 

[Storm Aiden]

If you thought the dual-core Tegra 2 inside tablets like the Motorola Xoom was impressive, you should know that Qualcomm just announced a quad-core SnapDragon processor for tablets that can reach up to 2.5 GHz per core.
The quad-core SnapDragon APQ8064 chip is aimed at supporting larger screens and resolutions, as well as dealing with more complex operating systems. Qualcomm said the quad-core SnapDragon can offer twelve times the available performance of previous chips in this line, as well as 75% lower power draw than the first SnapDragon chipset. This lower power draw is made possible because of the industry-first Krait, a 28nm process that allows for the smallest transistor nodes in the mobile space yet.
The quad-core SnapDragon will enable HD gaming, stereoscopic 3D, video capture at 1080p HD and full playback over an HDMI port. Needless to say, this thing will be able to pump out the power.
The company said:

The APQ8064 processor will include the Adreno 320 quad-core GPU, which will deliver fifteen times greater performance than the original Adreno GPU, for a console-quality gaming experience, as well as rendering rich UI’s. With up to 20 Megapixel camera support, the APQ8064 will internally synchronize two camera sensors for 3D video recording and will support external 3D video playback.
​

The quad-core SnapDragon chipset should power a lineup of really cool tablets and devices but the only problem is that it won’t be available until early 2012 and that will only be in select samples. If everything works out, we may be able to check out retail devices by the end of 2012, but we’re probably looking at 2013 at that time.
By that time, the competition will definitely be on pace. NVIDIA will likely soon announce its Tegra 3 chipset and that could wind up in retail devices by this time next year. We’re also expecting that Tegra 3 to be a quad-core chipset and pack many of the same features that Qualcomm is touting with its latest SnapDragon.
Still, the future of mobile computing looks bright and it should lead to some killer devices we get to play with.:icon_ banana:

 

[Amagine]

Can't you put a beefier processor in and throttle it when on battery? I'm thinking of something like this as a PC-replacement that, when docked would be plugged into a bigger power supply to feed the processor.

They'll never replace 100% of PC's, but 90-95% of home PC's?

The atrix has a desktop attachment to do this. Though I doubt you'll be able to increase the power of the processor. Plus the price tag is a bit much, $200 phone plus $500 for the desktop. Might as well get a decent laptop for that change. I agree with most of the above. Desktops and mobiles will always be on two different curves. What I think will get better is interoperability between the two worlds.
I'm really looking forward to the next few years, IBM supposedly has been able to efficiently implement spintronics ( the act of spinning up or down individual molecules or atoms). This could be huge in the area of solid state computing as well as for miniaturization of technology.


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