Qualcomm has made a name for themselves by making great mobile processors that power phones and tablets. Their new processor is already looking really good.
Qualcomm announced today that they’re working on the Snapdragon S4 Pro processor. Qualcomm already released the Snapdragon S4 back in October of last year, so why a new release so soon? New improvements that make the S4 even better, that’s why.
The big change is that the S4 Pro has the Adreno 320 GPU which better supports high resolution displays and is still compatible with hardware and software that used the S4. The Adreno 320 GPU is four times more powerful than the previous GPU on the regular S4. This allows it to provide new multimedia uses such as a computational camera.
For gaming, the Adreno 320 is ideal as it includes dedicated hardware to accelerate Windows and supports game engines like Unity and Epic’s Unreal Engine 3.
“As a result of strong customer demand for Snapdragon S4 processors, we’ve added a new Pro version of MSM8960 to continue delivering the highest performing mobile processors in the industry,” said Cristiano Amon, senior vice president of product management, Qualcomm. “By delivering the S4 Pro processor in 2012, we are fulfilling our promise that Snapdragon processors will remain the industry’s barometer for excellence in mobile computing while helping our customers bring the most innovative smartphones and tablets to market.”
It appears that the S4 Pro is being prepared for the impending release of Windows 8. It was also designed for other advanced operating systems so we can expect it to be powering Android 4.0 in the near future.
“Snapdragon S4 and S4 Pro are designed to enable tablets and notebook devices to deliver the high performance, flexibility, global 3G/4G connectivity and energy efficiency consumers are increasingly demanding,” said Luis Pineda, senior vice president of computing and consumer products, Qualcomm. “We are excited about the Snapdragon S4 Pro processors’ potential for consumers, and about the upcoming Windows 8 platform.”
So when will users begin to see the S4 Pro in their mobile devices? Qualcomm is pegging a release for the second half of 2012.
I’m more excited about that GPU and its implications for mobile gaming, but what say you? Are you excited for a new processor? Or do you think Qualcomm needs to slow down its releases and give its already existing hardware a chance to shine before replacing it? Let us know in the comments.