At MWC, the chip majors were all focused on packing more applications power into smartphones, netbooks and emerging devices like MIDs. TI and Qualcomm were focusing on updates to some of their key differentiating products in the convergence of phones and PCs – the OMAP apps processor for the former, the Gobi notebook 3G device and a new multimode 3G/LTE smartphone chip from the latter.
TI’s OMAP4 is the first to use ARM’s Cortex-A9 MPCores, to improve performance and lower power consumption. Devices and development tools should sample in the second half of this year, with volume coming a year later. The system on chip is geared to “stunning multimedia for applications that are only just being conceived”, according to the vendor.
OMAP 4 will deliver 1080p video record and playback, 20-megapixel imaging and almost a week of audio play time with a potential tenfold increase in web page loading time. Other boasts include more than seven times higher computing performance, six times higher video resolution, and 10 times better graphics performance.
The company, which now focuses primarily on apps processors in the mobile handset market, having virtually exited basebands, is also expanding its OMAP3 range, with products running up to 1GHz, and with a new development platform, the Zoom 34x-II MDP from Logic.
OMAP 4 platform will support Symbian, Windows Mobile, LiMo, Android and other Linux variants.
Meanwhile, Qualcomm expects to see the second version of Gobi, its software defined embedded 3G chipset for notebooks, in commercial products this summer. Gobi2000 adds support for the 900MHz frequency for Europe, 800MHz for Japan, and for higher speed 5.76Mbps HSUPA. The first Gobi numbered nine frequency bands as well as bringing GPS to the notebook.
Gobi is now present in 17 notebooks and other products, and the design has also been licensed to Taiwanese ODM Foxconn, indicating Qualcomm’s ability to adjust to new sectors and their ecosystems. Mike Concannon, head of the modules and connectivity business, said Gobi2 cut 20% of the price of its predecessor, and that 3G now typically adds $100 to the cost of a laptop. Next year, Gobi will gain HSPA+, with LTE to follow in 2011.
Qualcomm also introduced the industry’s first chipset for smartphones that supports EV-DO Rev B and Simultaneous Voice-Data Operation (SV-DO), as well as multi-carrier HSPA and LTE. The MSM8960 will sample in mid-2010. “Multimode 3G/LTE chipsets will be crucial to smooth deployments of LTE by operators who are looking to complement their existing 3G networks,” said Steve Mollenkopf, president of Qualcomm CDMA Technologies.