Qualcomm is going to enter the market of laptops and PCs
As a result of continuous development of ARM processors are strongly increasing their productivity, so the idea of using these chips in the next generation of thin notebooks and entry-level PC is becoming more viable. It is not surprising that Qualcomm wants to become one of the first ARM-producers in this market.
These plans shared with the public none other than senior vice-president and president of the European branch of Qualcomm CDMA Technologies Enrico Salvatori (Enrico Salvatori). In a recent interview resource Fudzilla, he said that the company’s goals include optimizing the platform for smartphones and tablets, followed by access to the markets of laptops and PCs.
In terms of hardware Qualcomm considers himself a ready to move: it now remains for operating systems and vendors. A key aspect of migration in these markets, by itself, is an upcoming operating system Microsoft Windows 8, which is support for processors ARM (for the new interface and special Metro ported to ARM «desktop” applications).
Qualcomm intends to integrate Windows 8 with withdrawing next year systems on a chip, Snapdragon S4, which will include up to 4 cores on the basis of the architects Krait with a maximum operating frequency of 2.5 GHz and equipped with a dual-channel memory controller, 800 MHz or LPDDR3 PCDDR4 1333. With this 4 ARM core will be integrated with graphics Adreno 420, which among other things, will support the decoding of stereoscopic Full HD video at 60 frames per second.
Of course, Qualcomm – is not the only developer of chip ARM, interested in entering the market of laptops and PCs. Much earlier than this company has to say NVIDIA, which this year will introduce its first four-core system on a chip, Tegra 3 (code name Kal-El), and by the time the release of Windows 8 may produce much more powerful and ambitious solution, which is known so far only a code name – Project Denver (rumors about the characteristics of this chip has more than once published).
By opposition to market devices Windows 8 will join next year and other manufacturers. Time will tell how viable will be ARM-concept version of the OS by Microsoft.