Qualcomm’s Snapdragon S4 CPUs to Power Windows Phone 8

Qualcomm is the largest chip maker that supports Microsoft’s Windows Phone operating system, and it plans on remaining so.

The company’s processors are found in current Windows Phone 7 devices and are said to be en-route to provide great performance capabilities to upcoming Windows Phone 8 handsets as well. The company has already packed its processors inside devices running under Windows 8, and it has brought them to Computex in Taipei. Thus, Windows Phone 8 handsets powered by S4 CPUs are almost a certainty. However, more users will be able to enjoy the company’s products in mid- and high-end smartphones moving forth, as its chipsets are not exclusive to Windows Phone.

Qualcomm already has a variety of processor families included in its Snapdragon lineup, and it has just announced that there would be two S4 tiers specifically destined for the mobile market, namely S4 Plus and S4 Play. Snapdragon S4 Plus is meant to power both basic and high-end devices, providing users with leading 3G and 4G internet connectivity. These chips will enable OEMs to include next-gen architecture inside a wide range of smartphones, as well as inside tablets. “The enhanced S4 processors also are optimized for use with a suite of software solutions available from Qualcomm that help enable OEMs to deliver industry-leading feature sets for multimedia, connectivity, camera, display, security, power management, browsing and natural user interface design,” the company said.

Qualcomm plans on including processors such as MSM8960, APQ8060A, MSM8660A, MSM8260A, APQ8030, MSM8930, MSM8630, MSM8230, MSM8627 and MSM8227 in the S4 Plus tier. The Snapdragon S4 Play Processors, on the other hand, have been designed to meet requirements for high-volume smartphones, while offering more advanced 3G capabilities than previous products. Two processors will be included in the Snapdragon S4 Play tier, namely MSM8625 and MSM8225, both of them with dual-core CPUs that have been clocked at 1.2 GHz and with Qualcomm's Adreno 203 GPU and an integrated 3G modem.

These chipsets offer hardware and software compatibility with the MSM7x27A and MSM7x25A family of chipsets, so that manufacturers can migrate from the older designs to newer, S4 dual core-based designs.

Posted in: Hardware, Mobile Phone, Preview