Qualcomm Upgrades Snapdragon Chip Line, Targets Apple A6X, Tegra 4

From DailyTech: The system-on-a-chip (SoC) market is growing crowded, and the competition is intense. Samsung Electronics Comp., Ltd.'s (KSC:005930) Exynos 5250, Intel Corp.'s (INTC) Atom Z2760, and Apple, Inc.'s (AAPL) A6X are currently trading blows atop the performance charts. NVIDIA Corp.'s (NVDA) is claiming its just released Tegra 4 processor (28 nm) is the "world's fastest" mobile chip.

That list leaves off one big player -- Qualcomm, Inc. (QCOM). A year ago Qualcomm released the Snapdragon S4, a SoC that went on to become one of the most popular chips among high-power Windows RT and Android devices. This year at the 2013 Consumer Electronics Show, Qualcomm announced its answer to the aforementioned competition -- and a departure from its naming.

The Texas-based chipmaker ditched the SX style names for this generation, instead naming its chips (from low- to high-end) Snapdragon 200, 400, 600, and 800. The new second-generation 28 nanometer designs are expected to launch in mid 2013.

The chips pack Qualcomm's new Krait 400 cores, which can be clocked up to 2.3 GHz. Qualcomm packs up to four of the cores in its high-end 600 and 800 series chips.

Also onboard will be the latest bleeding edge communications standards. There's an on-die third generation Advanced LTE modem capable of pulling down 150 megabits-per-second in the high-end 800 series. Also supported are 802.11n and the upcoming 802.11ac wireless standard.

The Snapdragon 800 will be clocked at 2.3 GHz and will be roughly 75 percent faster than the fastest Snapdragon S4. The Snapdragon 600 will be clocked at 1.9 GHz and be 40 percent faster that than the fastest Snapdragon S4.

The 600 will feature a "speed enhanced" version of last generation's Adreno 320 on-die GPU from Qualcomm's in-house GPU family which it purchased from Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.'s (AMD) in 2008 and has been building on ever since. The 800 will take things a step further with an Adreno 330, which is estimated to be twice as powerful as the Adreno 320.

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