The Bar for Smarphone Processing Power Has Been Raised

Two handsets have been announced so far that have raised the bar in terms of the porcessing power in handsets. They are the Palm Pre and the Toshiba TG01. They both use ARM-based processors that are based on ARM's Cortex-A8 design. The Palm Pre includes TI's OMAP 3 (3430) processor, and the Toshiba TG01 includes Qualcomm's Snapdragon processor. These are more powerful processors that are perfect for MIDs and netbooks, and they are now making their way into smartphones.

TI's OMAP 3 and Qualcomm's Snapdragon (as well as other solutions from Intel, VIA, Freescale, etc.) are not just processors though. Platform would be the better word. They include graphics capabilities, bus, peripheral support, and more. The Palm Pre was the first handset announced to use such a processor, but the Toshiba TG01 is the first to use the Snapdragon solution. Snapdragon also includes GPS, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, EV-DO, and HSPA all on the same SoC. With Snapdragon, smartphone vendors can get their solution to the market quicker than if they had to also design the wireless solutions in, and we believe it will allow consumer electronics vendors (or any other company not used to designing mobile wireless products) to get smartphones on the market easier as well.