Qualcomm showcases the Snapdragon S4 ahead of Mobile World Congress

"> 0by Robert Nazarian
tagged qualcomm, Snapdragon S4

We’ve already heard about Qualcomm’s latest processor, the Snapdragon S4, which will be quad-core and utilize LTE. Qualcomm took the time to give us some details ahead of Mobile World Congress. The new SoC now supports up to three cameras (two in the back for 3D and one front-facing), 20-megapixels, and recording video at 1080p (30fps). We can also expect zero shutter lag, 3A processing (autofocus, auto exposure and auto white balance), and improved blink/smile detection, gaze estimation, range finding and image stabilization. Last but not least, it supports gesture detection/control, augmented reality, and computer vision (via Qualcomm’s FastCV).

Hit the break for a couple of videos featuring image stabilization and gestures.

source: engadget

» See more articles by Robert Nazarian

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Next big thing in mobile? Bluetooth, says Qualcomm

Bluetooth is going to be the next big thing in mobile, according to the chip making experts over at Qualcomm.

No, we haven't commandeered a DeLorean and travelled back to the nineties, you did hear us right – Bluetooth. And it's all down to AllJoyn, Qualcomm's peer-to-peer solution that "enables ad-hoc, proximity based, Peer-to-Peer, bearer agnostic networking between devices and applications" - try saying that three times fast with a mouthful of marshmallows.

What it boils down to is the ability for users to connect with each other using local networks to chat, play games and the like.

Named after a Danish king, you know

The thing is, Qualcomm says, no one's ever really made the most of Bluetooth and Wi-Fi.

"We've had Bluetooth and Wi-Fi for years," said Rob Chandhok, senior vice President of Software Strategy at Qualcomm. "But apart from vertically-minded companies like Nintendo and Apple, no one really uses them for communicating with devices around you.

"We see the need for these devices [phones, tablets et al] to interact with the world around them – what services are near by and what software can we build to use them?"

"So we saw an opportunity. We acquired Open Interface four or five years ago, these world class Bluetooth guys, and we said, 'Make Bluetooth friendly to a software guy not a hardware guy'. Because Bluetooth's build on a hardware-centric model – it's got these labour-intensive, archaic pairing rituals and that's why people don't use it. It's why nobody's done anything with it."

AllJoyn is an API application so any developer can use it in any application – Qualcomm describes it as "true peer-to-peer" with no need to use the internet at all.

"When do I get to the point where I can say 'Siri, turn on the lights in this room' – not now, because it'd have to be an Apple light switch. The Internet of Things can't take off until we have an open protocol."

He concludes, rather cryptically:

"We can't say anything at present, but you'd be surprised about who's willing to support this open protocol – it's really quite exciting."

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Qualcomm 'not concerned' about Tegra 3

Qualcomm doesn't see Nvidia's Tegra 3 chipset as a threat, saying that it isn't concerned about the quad-core processor because it's just a single instance product.

Speaking at a media briefing that TechRadar attended, Rob Chandhok, senior vice President of Software Strategy at Qualcomm, said:

"Tegra 3 isn't concerning us. We're going to continue to focus on driving a family of products, not single instance products which is what Tegra 3 is going to be.

"You're going to see hundreds of S4 devices in the market place. How many are going to have Tegra 3?" Zing!

Fighting talk

The company is certainly in a strong position, boasting over 300 Snapdragon-toting mobile devices already in the market with 350 more in development.

Its quad-core capable S4 chip is capable of up to 1.7GHz and can run a 20MP camera and handle LTE networks and more efficient power management on a chip the same size as its predecessor, the S3.

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Interview: Qualcomm 'working on Nokia roadmap, not single launch'

When Kevin Shields took to the Nokia World stage last month, he was pretty clear that he thought the new Nokia Lumia 800 Windows Phone was "awesome". But the reception has been a little less vocal since.

While the Lumia 800 features a speedy 1.4GHz variant of the single-core Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8255, we asked Qualcomm's Enrico Salvatori, president of Qualcomm CDMA technologies in Europe if it was a problem that consumers were now looking for dual-core handsets.

He replied somewhat obliquely, saying the Lumia 800 is just the beginning of the relationship with Nokia – in other words, that it's working on other higher spec devices to come.

"We are working on a roadmap [with Nokia] and not a single device, a single launch. It's an important collaboration for Qualcomm, so we are very excited about working together. It's been very effective in terms of time to market because we developed the phone together. It's been a very successful development."

Salvatori added that it was a big achievement for both the Nokia and Qualcomm teams to bring the devices to market inside six months.

Snapdragon also features inside the Nokia Lumia 710 as well and Qualcomm is no stranger to working with either Nokia (with whom it built the ill-fated N9) or Microsoft, who it has been working with on Windows Phone 7 as well as the ARM version of Windows 8. Indeed, Qualcomm chips power every Windows Phone on the market.

"The Nokia collaboration is also very much about the Windows Phone ecosystem and, of course, we at Qualcomm, as you know, are supporting on our platform the Windows Phone software and actually at the moment we are the only supplier supporting the integrated solution."

Platform agnostic

Salvatori clearly eyes more opportunities with Microsoft's mobile OS, but says that it doesn't mean that Qualcomm has suddenly become platform specific.

"Windows Phone is an important ecosystem that we support. Our vision and our objective is very much to develop a platform, a roadmap that is optimised for multiple high level OS environments, so we adopt an agnostic approach in supporting all ecosystem environments.

"So definitely we are very active with Android and have a solid roadmap, Microsoft we have a roadmap [then there's] RIM, BlackBerry and our internal platform Brew."

Salvatori was also keen to stress the increasing importance of software and hardware being designed together and working together.

"I think we are giving evidence that a high level OS is another element [of delivering] an integrated platform. At the end of the day we strongly believe – and the markets [are telling us] – that a fully integrated solution is compelling and an attractive solution for our customers; [the] manufacturers."

"An integrated solution also reduces time to market, reducing the bill of materials, the component counts and also reducing power consumption of those components. It also reduces the size of the PCB so the form factor can be [smaller].

"It is very important for the market that [there is] integration of not only the GPU, CPU and modem but also in terms of a high level OS. So delivering a fully integrated platform with Microsoft [or] with Android is [best for] our customers."

Qualcomm has spoken recently about its upcoming roadmap and specifically about the quad-core, 28nm Snapdragon S4 which will see clockspeeds rising to a staggering 2.5GHz. There will also be a new Adreno graphics processor too.

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Qualcomm S4 processors to support Windows 8

Qualcomm has announced that its latest S4 chipset will support Windows 8 and that we should see devices with the processor built in by the middle of 2012.

This is according to Pocket-lint, which reported from the Innovation Qualcomm event in Istanbul that the next Snapdragon processor will be a powerful chip, sporting Adreno Graphics, 3D, 1080p HD and 3G connectivity.

The S4 is part of the next-generation processors from Qualcomm, which have been given a new and easier to understand naming strategy.

The chips range from S1 to S4, with the S4 variation being the more powerful quad-core variety.

Core values

Qualcomm also revealed that the chip can be optimised for particular devices so we will see the Dual-Core MSM8960 and Quad-Core APQ8064 varieties of the processor appearing in Windows 8 computers come 2012 – interestingly there's no word on if they will be appearing in tablets.

As for mobile phones, the processors will be shipped to manufacturers by the end of 2011, so expect 2.5GHz phones soon after.

Back in August, Qualcomm boasted that its latest chipset will make phones more powerful than PS3s so it will be interesting to see just how good the phones are when released.

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