Snapdragon

Chapter 1

1.1

Introduction

Mobile devices and mobile services have become part of people’s everyday lives and they arechanging the way people live, work and play. Consumers are progressively moving beyond just using their phones to call people. We see them increasingly using mobile devices toaccess email, browse the web, play games, and enjoy multimedia like music and video.The next generation of phones and mobile devices need greater processing power to supportthese capabilities. Snapdragon delivers the unprecedented combination of 3G, processing performance, powerful multimedia capabilities and optimized power consumption all in asingle chip to enable a new generation of smart mobile devices. Snapdragon has become thesolution of choice for any device manufacturer designing a high-performance,next-generationmobile device.Snapdragon is the name of the architecture of a family of chipsets with an ARM-based CPU.The architecture was developed by Qualcomm (which calls Snapdragon a "platform") for usein smartphones and mobile computing devices.Qualcomm's Snapdragon platform offers an unprecedented combination of processing performance and optimized power consumption for the new generation of smart mobiledevices. With Snapdragon chipsets, devices are always connected and aware and can offer allthe communications users demand, including 3G mobile broadband, Wi-Fi,Bluetooth and GPS. Snapdragon-based devices are thin, ultra-portable and easy to use, withan intuitive user interface and mobile OSWith powerful 1GHz-plus processors, Snapdragon-powered devices are bringing a new typeof user experience to market, redefining mobility for consumers around the world. Mobiledevices based on the Snapdragon family of chipsets deliver real-time ubiquitouscommunication, high-performance multimedia, location-aware content, Internet browsing and productivity applications, all with the lowest levels of power consumption for all-day batterylife and always-on connectivity.Powered by Snapdragon chipsets, smart phones now coming to market are lighter and more powerful than ever. With larger, high-resolution display screens and faster processing,smartphones give you reliable voice, data, Internet, and GPS navigation-but now in an even

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Snapdragon

thinner form factor that still fits in your pocket. With Snapdragon power in your Smartphone,you can quickly access all your favourite applications and take advantage of 3G mobile broadband connectivity and an extended battery life.The Snapdragon platform is designed for real time ubiquitous computing with low power consumption for day-long battery life. The first chipsets in the Snapdragon family were theQSD8650 and the QSD8250, available since the fourth quarter of 2008,both integrating a 1GHz, applications processor, a cellular modem and GPS.The Snapdragon application processor core is called Scorpion and is similar to the ARMCortex-A8 core. All Snapdragon processors contain the circuitry to decode High-Definition(HD) video at 720p resolution.The latest QSD8672 chip uses 45 nm technology and includes two CPU cores running at upto 1.5 GHz. QSD8672 product targets advanced mobile computing devices and includesintegrated HSPA+, GPS, Bluetooth, full high definition video recording and playback, Wi-Fiand mobile TV technologies (MediaFLO, DVB-H and ISDB-T). Mobile devices using theQSD8672 are expected to become available in the second half of 2010.

1.2 Overview

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Snapdragon

Qualcomm's Snapdragon platform offers an unprecedented combination of processing performance and optimized power consumption for the new generation of smart mobiledevices. With Snapdragon chipsets, devices are always connected and aware and can offer allthe communications users demand, including 3G mobile broadband, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth andGPS. Snapdragon-based devices are thin, ultra-portable and easy to use, with an intuitive user interface and mobile OS.With powerful 1GHz-plus processors, Snapdragon-powered devices are bringing a new typeof user experience to market, redefining mobility for consumers around the world. Mobiledevices based on the Snapdragon family of chipsets deliver real-time ubiquitouscommunication, high-performance multimedia, location-aware content, Internet browsing and productivity applications, all with the lowest levels of power consumption for all-day batterylife and always-on connectivity.Snapdragon technology is the next step in the evolution of mobility that Qualcomm brings tomarket.Smartbooks: The New Breed of Mobility and AbilitySnapdragon chipsets power smartbooks, a new breed of mobile devices that merge theintuitive, instant-on and always-connected user experience of smartphones with the versatilityand power of a laptop in a smaller and thinner design than the traditional or mini-notebook.Smartbooks offer high-quality multimedia performance with 3D graphics, HD video, built-inGPS and more. Smartbooks let you enjoy movies, stream videos, play games, surf the weband social networking sites, connect and locate friends and places and more-wherever youare. A sizable high-resolution display and all the high-performance advantages of Snapdragonchipsets round out an incomparable mobile experience in a sleek and slim form factor. Awide variety of Snapdragon-based smartbooks are already in design today.Smartphones: Now Smarter and More PowerfulPowered by Snapdragon chipsets, smartphones now coming to market are lighter and more powerful than ever. With larger, high-resolution display screens and faster processing,smartphones give you reliable voice, data, Internet, and GPS navigation-but now in an eventhinner form factor that still fits in your pocket. With Snapdragon power in your Smartphone,you can quickly access all your favourite applications and take advantage of 3G mobile broadband connectivity and an extended battery life.

1.3History

Not that long ago, competition in the microprocessor world centred on x86 designs for desktop PCs and RISC devices for workstations. “In the 1990s, [CPU design] was all about

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