14 DAY TRIAL // Today, Qualcomm Incorporated has announced the upcoming availability of the MSM8225Q and MSM8625Q, two new mobile processors that have been included in the Snapdragon S4 Play family of CPUs.
Both of them have been designed to provide users with fast performance, and will be delivered to OEMs both in dual-core and quad-core packages, the company unveiled.
Qualcomm claims that these chips are great for a broad range of smartphones, being capable of delivering increased performance for entry-level devices, as well as support for larger screen resolutions, HD video playback and an enhanced user experience for higher-end handsets.
The company plans to offer customer sampling for both processors before the end of this year, while aiming at having them included in commercial products in the first quarter of 2013.
“The MSM8225Q and MSM8625Q processors incorporate quad-core CPUs and are the upgraded software compatible variants of the highly successful Snapdragon S4 Play MSM8225 and MSM8625 processors, which both feature dual-core CPUs and dual SIM support,” the company announced.
“The quad-core variants will support LPDDR2 memory, increasing the bus bandwidth for improved features such as 720p display and 720p video encode and decode.”
The new Snapdragon S4 Play MSM8625Q comes with a multimode UMTS/CDMA modem packed inside, while the MSM8225Q features an UMTS modem.
Both CPUs sport Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0 and FM connectivity, courtesy of Qualcomm’s Atheros AR6005 and WCN2243 chips.
In addition to these two processors, Qualcomm announced a new platform for the Chinese market, namely the Snapdragon S4 Plus MSM8930.
It will arrive in the country with support for UMTS, CDMA and TD-SCDMA connectivity, as well as for LTE-TDD and TD-SCDMA, which makes it a great option for mid-tier smartphones in China.
“Announced in February 2011, this processor features dual-core CPUs and as the world's first single-chip solution with an integrated LTE modem, it is designed to take LTE to high-volume smartphones,” Qualcomm said.
“Snapdragon S4 Plus MSM8930 with LTE-TDD and TD-SCDMA support will be ready for customer sampling by the end of 2012 and is expected to be shipping in commercial devices by the first quarter of 2013.”
The company also confirmed the availability of Qualcomm Reference Design (QRD) versions of all three chips. It also confirmed that all three processors were designed for high-volume smartphones, and that OEMs would be able to easily migrate existing Snapdragon S1-based designs to them.