Qualcomm Looking Ahead

Qualcomm announced two interesting things today.  The first is a new chipset family for multimedia heavy smartphones.  The MSM7x30 series will feature the same Scorpion CPU that is found in the current Snapdragon chipsets.  Scorpion?  Snapdragon?  Qualcomm has come good names.  Let’s take a look at the specs.

• 800Mhz – 1Ghz core CPU Speed
• 720p high-definition video encode/decode at 30 frames per second
• Integrated 2D and 3D graphics GPUs with support for OpenGL ES 2.0, and OpenVG 1.1 industry standard APIs
• Dedicated low-power audio subsystem supporting 5.1 surround
• 12-megapixel camera support
• Integrated GPS for location-based services
• Support for leading mobile operating systems, including Android, Windows Mobile, Brew Mobile Platform and Symbian
• Support for package-on-package memory for reduced board space, optimized power consumption and more responsive performance

The MSM7x30 family of chipsets is supported by the PM8058(TM) power management integrated circuit and the QTR8600(TM) RF subsystem with integrated Bluetooth® and FM radio. MSM7x30 chipsets will directly interface with Qualcomm’s WCN1312(TM) WLAN solution for 802.11 b/g/n.  Be sure and note the “n” is this announcement.

The next announcement is about their multimode 3G/LTE chipsets.  I’ll let Qualcomm tell it like it is:

Qualcomm’s MDM8220 dual-carrier HSPA+ solution, based on the 3GPP Release 8 standard, provides peak downlink data rates of up to 42 megabits per second (Mbps) and 11 Mbps on the uplink, allowing carriers to easily upgrade their existing infrastructure equipment to achieve significantly higher bandwidths. Its dual-carrier technology doubles networks’ bandwidth from 5 MHz to 10 MHz by aggregating two HSPA carriers in parallel.

The MDM9200 and the MDM9600 chipsets are the industry’s first multi-mode 3G/LTE solutions that allow UMTS and CDMA2000® operators to upgrade seamlessly to future LTE services while preserving backward compatibility to their existing 3G networks. MDM9200 supports UMTS, HSPA+ and LTE, while the MDM9600 supports CDMA2000® 1X, EV-DO Rev. B, SV-DO, SV-LTE, UMTS, HSPA+ and LTE. All of the new chipsets support FDD LTE and TDD LTE modes and different carrier bandwidths, and are capable of using orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) and multiple-input and multiple-output (MIMO) antenna technology to support peak data rates of up to 100 Mbps on the downlink and 50 Mbps on the uplink.

Yes, that sounds nice.  However, I’m having a hard time determining if any of these new chipsets/radios support any current GSM carries.  Anyone want to help me out with this one?

MultiMode Announcement in Full

Chipset Announcement in Full

via engadget